Breeding Journey
by Lucario808
Summary: When one trainer's journey is changed when he come's across a lonely Infernape while researching which breeds of pokemon will mate with others.
1. Chapter 1

During my travels to become a Pokemon collector, I decided to stop in Solaceon Town and take a few days break to rest up and restock on supplies.

As I passed the Daycare Center, I noticed a lonely Infernape holding an egg.

I went into the center and asked the Daycare Lady, "I noticed out their that the Infernape is sitting by herself. Mind if I go talk to her?"

"Sure thing. Right this way if you please," she replied.

Once we got to her, I asked if she could give us a moment. She left us alone after that.

"Hey," I said, "you ok?"

She was a young Infernape about the age of 18. She had emerald green eyes and had a small scar on her right hand by the vein by her index finger but is more down.

She sniffed, "I'm fine, I just don't have anyone to talk to," she had set the egg aside.

I put an arm around her to comfort her. After I did, she turned and cried into my shoulder.

I was caught off guard.

I looked down and put my arms around her to let her know that I cared for her. We sat for some time before she finally stopped crying.

As she stopped crying I held her in my arms to comfort her.

"If you need someone to talk to, you can talk to me," I said in a soothing voice.

"Thank you," she replied.

Once beside me, I kept my arm around her in comfort.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Valencia," she said.

"Cute name," I said.

"Thanks," she sniffed.

"You're welcome," I said smiling.

"What's your name?" Valencia asked.

"Tristain," I replied.

"Cute name," she said.

"Thanks," I blushed slightly, "no ones really ever commented on my name before."

"Sorry," Valencia said.

"Don't be sorry," I replied, "you're actually the first to compliment on my name, that's all."

She blushed.

"Now then, why don't you tell me what happened." I asked her.

"I can't remember all of," she said.

"Well," I said, "tell me what you can remember."

"Ok," she said a little worriedly, "it was about 3 weeks ago when I met a young Blaziken about the age 20 or so named Donte."

"Hmm," I said in response.

"Is something the matter?" she asked.

"Oh, it's nothing," I replied, "I was just thinking that's all. Please continue."

"His trainer was resting for a few days when he met me. My trainer however, never came back to get me from here," she said starting to cry again, "I've been here for about 2 months now."

She hugged me again and started crying.

"O~ ok I understand," I said, "I'm here for you."

As the day grew into evening, I told Valencia that I would come back sometime during the day after I got my shopping done.

"Night Valencia," I said.

"Night Tristain," she replied as I got up to leave.

"That took longer than I expected,"said the Daycare women.

"Sorry," I replied, " I tend to get a bit carried away when I'm taking care of others."

"That's ok," she replied, "she's been needing some attention for some time now."

"Yea," I replied, "she needed someone to talk to."

"You should get some rest," said the Daycare man.

"Thanks," I replied.

"We got a room ready for you," said the Daycare woman.

"Thank you for your hospitality," I bowed in respect.

"A bit formal are we," she said.

"Sorry," I said slightly blushing, "its just that I respect my elders."

She smiled.

"Come on, I'll show to your room," said the Daycare man.

As I got settled into the room, I couldn't help but wonder about Valencia. I thought about what she had told earlier that day.

Some time later I fell asleep.

"We're coming to get you," said someone

"We want you to leave," said another.

"Get out while you can," said a third.

I woke up a hours later sweating. I sat there panting for a few minutes. Once I caught my breathe, I went outside to get some fresh air.

I stepped outside when I heard some sobbing and saw Valencia over by some trees by herself. I grabbed my coat and walked over to where Valencia was sitting.

I put my coat around her and I kept my arm around her.

"You ok?" I asked not knowing what was wrong.

She kept sobbing.

"Come here," I said hugging her.

She wrapped her arms around me and cried into my chest.

"It's ok Valencia," I said in a soothing voice while petting her, "I'm here for you."

She continued to sob into me for some time.

As I held her, she calmed down a bit.

"You ok?" I asked her. I knew something was wrong.

She continued to hug me.

I couldn't help but to keep my arms around her until she felt better.

As I cuddled her, something didn't feel right, I knew there was something out their.

"Valencia?" I said, "did you have a nightmare?"

She nodded.

"Did you hear voices in the nightmare telling you to leave?" I asked.

She nodded again.

I was shocked. I thought I was the only one who had the strange dream. "You're not the only one," I said, "I had the same dream."

She was shocked after I explained my dream.

"You mean you had the same dream?" she said with tears in her eyes.

I took a finger and wiped away the tears and put my hand on her cheek.

"How ironic," I said.

"Yea," she replied still a bit surprised.

"We should get some sleep," I said laying down.

"Ok," she replied.

"Come here," I said, "you can cuddle up with me for the night."

"Thanks," she said.

Valencia rested her head along with her hand on my chest. Once she was comfortable, I put my arm around her and comforted her.

A few minutes later she fell asleep.

It was morning when the Daycare woman came out looking for me.

"There you are," she said, "I've been looking for you since dawn."

"Sorry," I said, "I woke up last night and I needed some fresh air when I saw Valencia sitting by herself."

"I came to tell you that breakfast is ready,"she said.

"Thank you," I replied, "I'll be their in a moment."

"I'll be back later today after I get a few things done," I said to Valencia.

"Ok," she replied as I got up to leave.

The first place I went to was the Poke mart to get a few supplies for the travel.

"Excuse me mister," came a voice from behind me, "have you seen my mommy?"

It was a little girl about 3 years of age. "No, I haven't, but I'll help you find your mommy."

She gave me a hug in appreciation.

I picked her up and paid for the supplies I had gotten.

"What's your name sweetie?" I asked her.

"Ari," she said

"Nice to meet you Ari," I said, "my name is Tristain."

She seemed scared. "I want my mommy."

"Ok, let's got find your mommy," I said, "come here." I let her cry.

"Ari," I heard someone call out.

I turned around to see her mother running towards me.

"Thank you so much for finding her," she said.

"You're welcome," I replied, "I think she fell asleep on me, mind if I carry her to your house?" She nodded.

Once at the house, I let her sleep on me for some time.

"Where did you find her?" she asked as I got settled.

"I didn't find her," I said, "she found me. I was at the Poke mart getting a few supplies before I left on my journey again."

"I'm glad she's alive," replied Abigail.

"Yea, it was great getting to know you and all, but I gotta go meet up with somebody," I said.

At that moment Ari woke up. "Leaving so soon?" she asked.

"Yea, I gotta get going," I said.

She gave me one last hug before I left.

"Will we see each other again?" she asked.

"One day we will," I reassured her.

"She's been wanting to become a trainer," Abigail said.

"Really? Don't give up on that dream of yours," I said standing up.

As I got all the supplies into my bag the Daycare woman came over to talk to me.

"You know l, we're putting Valencia up for adoption, and I came to ask you first if you wanted to adopt her before I let the public know." she said.

"That sounds like a good idea, let me go talk it over with Valencia before adopting her. I want to know whats best for her." I replied.

I went outside to talk to Valencia.

"Hey," I said putting an arm around her.

She looked up at me.

I knelt down beside her and asked, "how'd you like to join my team?"

"That'd be great," she said giving me a hug.

"Ok then," I said wrapping my arms around her, "I'll go talk to the Daycare woman about adopting you.

After she let go of me the Daycare woman came over. "So," she said, "I see she agreed to join your team, correct?"

"That's correct," I replied.

"I'll go get the adoption forms ready," she said.

"Thank you," I said.

I followed her back to the Daycare center and filled out the adoption forms.

"All right," I said, "that should do it."

I gave her the adoption forms and the money for her.

"Ok that's all that's needed for her," she said, "Valencia is now yours."

"Thank you," I replied, "I'll let her know."

I walked over to where Valencia was sitting.

"Hey," I said kneeling down and putting an arm around her, "welcome to the team."

I told her that I was leaving shortly and together we left to continue on the journey.

"So," I said, "how long have you been at the Daycare center?"

"For about a month or so," she replied.

"Are you happy that you're out of their?" I asked.

She nodded. "So where are we going?"

"You'll see once we get their," I said.

"Come on, please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Aww, come on your no fun," she said desperately.

"Sorry, but I want to surprise you," I replied.

A few hours later, we stopped for the night by a hot spring.

"It's beautiful," she said.

"I thought you'd might like it," I told her.

"Thank you so much," she said hugging me.

"Hey easy," I said putting an arm around her. "I'm holding the egg remember?"

"Oh, sorry," she said blushing, "I forgot."

"Don't worry," I said, "I thought you'd need it since you've been their for awhile."

She sniffed.

"Come on," I said putting an arm around here. "You deserve to relax, and have some fun for once."

We sat down in the hot spring to relax and to have some fun. I knew she needed some relaxation and get to know me better before we continued onward with the journey.

During the time we were having fun, it had gotten late and it was just about time to make dinner.

"Come on Valencia, lets dry off and get dinner ready," I said.

I prepared dinner and Valencia set up the place to eat.

As dinner was being served ready, I gave Valencia hers and I had mine and telling her countless stories growing up and becoming who I am with my training.

We had finished up dinner and I got things cleaned up.

When I finished up the dishes, I noticed Valencia had fallen asleep. I got a blanket from my pack and put it over her and put a pillow under her head.

"Sleep tight Valencia," I said rubbing her arm gently.

I stayed up a bit longer before falling asleep next to her.

It was about midnight when I woke up and found Valencia sitting by herself by the hot spring.

"You ok," I asked sitting beside her.

"I'm fine," she replied, "I woke up from a nightmare and I didn't want to wake you up."

I put an arm around her and we sat and looked out into the hot spring.

"I've never seen something this beautiful before," she said.

The sky was clear and the moon was reflecting off of the still hot spring water.

I smiled as she leaned against me.

I thought back to the time when I first came across it many years back. I was doing a mission for Prof. Rowan. It was a few days before I could start my adventure as a trainer in the Sinnoh region.

Valencia gave me a nudge.

That's when I came back to reality.

"You ok?" she asked.

"Yea," I replied, "I was just thinking on how I first came across this place."

"How did you come across this place anyways?" she asked me.

"I was giving an important assignment by Prof. Rowan." I replied.

"What about?"

"I often wonder that myself."

"What do you mean?"

"He never told me what the assignment was about, all I know was I was to deliver an important document to a researcher but I couldn't open it at all," I explained.

She yawned.

"Come on we should get some sleep before we continue in the morning." I said to her.

Morning came and we were backing up to leave. It was after breakfast when were on our way to Veilstone City.

It was midday when we stopped in Veilstone City. We traveled for hours without stopping.

We looked around for a little bit for a place to stay. That's when we came across Maylene the gym leader.

"Tristain, long time no see," she said.

"Same to you too," I replied, "have you been training hard since I last battled you?"

"I have,"she replied.

"So, how's your Lucario doing?" I asked.

"He's a lot stronger since we've last met," she replied.

I noticed at this point that she wanted to battle me to show how much stronger her Lucario became.

"Since we're here we might as well battle," I said pulling out a poke ball off of my belt.

She did the same accepting my challenge. Her first choice was her Lucario.

My first choice was an Absol.

"Bite let's go."

"Bone Rush"

"Dodge, then use Razor Wind."

"Lucario, get close and use Force Palm."

"Dodge then use Quick Attack."

"Force Palm once more."

That's when she took out my Absol.

I pulled out a Great Ball, "Ursaring, you're up."

"Ursaring, huh? I haven't seen one of those in awhile. Lucario return. Go Medicham."

"Ursaring, use Slash."

"Medicham, use Low Kick."

"Dodge, then use Hyper beam"

That took out her Medicham with one blow.

"Medicham, return. So I see you improved some."

"I was gonna say the same to you."

"Lucario, come on out. Lucario, use Force Palm."

With that my Ursaring was out.

I thought to myself, "I didn't think I'd have to use this."

"What's it gonna be, Tristain?" she said.

Valencia started to come towards the battle.

I threw out an arm and said, "Stay where you are Valencia."

She was stunned on what I had had said being through many battles on our way to Veilstone City.

I pulled a Master Ball from my belt.

"Is that Master Ball?" she asked.

"Go, Deoxys."

Maylene was stunned as she had never seen a Deoxys before.

"Deoxys, use Extremespeed."

It had hit Lucario hard and knocked him out.

"Impressive, a Deoxys that knows Extremespeed. Go Hitmontop."

"Deoxys, use Zap Cannon."

That was enough to finish the battle.

"You've improved a lot Tristain. Come stay with me for the night."

By then it was evening and we went to Maylene's for the night.

"Thanks for the hospitality Maylene." I said.

"You're welcome."

She cooked dinner for us and we set up the table.

"So what have you been up to lately Tristain?" asked Maylene.

"Not much, only training," I replied, "and what about you?"

"Same here, training to become stronger," she said, "so how did you meet Valencia?"

"I had stopped in Solaceon Town for a few days to stock up on some supplies and to rest up." I said while Valencia was sitting by Lucario.

By the time me and Maylene had gotten caught up it was late in the night and went to bed.

Early morning came and I got up and did a little Thai Chi before everyone else got up.

In the midst of my training my aura flared up letting me know someone was coming. I got into a defensive position ready to strike at whoever was their.

That's when Maylene's Lucario came out.

"It's only you, I thought you were an enemy," I said receding the Mach Punch.

"I thought I felt someone out here," he replied.

"So, what brings you out here this early in the morning?" I asked the Lucario.

"To get some peace and quiet before everyone else gets up," he replied sitting down on a nearby rock.

I did the same.

"So, have you been training hard since we've last met?" I asked him.

"Yes, I'm assuming you've been doing the same since then." he said.

"That's correct," I replied.

"What were you doing out here this early in the morning?" he asked.

"Before you came, I was doing some training," I replied, "I was honing my aura skills."

"I only come out to catch some training myself before Maylene wakes up," he said.

"You wanna train with me before we head back to the house for breakfast?" I asked the young Lucario.

He nodded.

For the next hour we trained together. I helped him hone in on his aura powers and his fighting moves.

By the time we finished Maylene and Valencia were just waking up.

We sat down for breakfast explaining why me and Lucario were up so early and what we were up to outside.

Once we finished up breakfast, me and Valencia left to continue our journey.

By mid-morning me and Valencia went on our way to the next town. We said our good byes and left.

We continued on through route 214 till we came upon and opening in the trees to where we decided to make camp for the night.

I set up camp while Valencia played around in the opening. I looked up as I finished. I smiled that she was has fun.

"Settle down Valencia," I called out, "don't hurt yourself."

When Valencia came back, I noticed she was a bit pale. "Valencia, you ok?" I asked her a little worried.

"I'm fine," she replied, "I just feel a little under-the-weather that's all.

I checked her temperature. That's when I noticed she was shivering.

"She's burning up, and fast," I thought. "You need to rest." I gave her some water, "here, take this. Drink only small sips out of it." I had put a blanket around her and had her lean up against me for support.

"I...I feel a bit dizzy" she said.

I made a make shift bed for her so she could sleep.

"Here, drink this before you go to sleep," I said, "it'll help fight off the fever, so you don't have much discomfort during the night."

She cringed, "it tastes bitter."

"Its an herbal medicine I made sometime back before we left Solaceon Town. Get some sleep, you're gonna need it."

Within a few minutes she was out without another word. I made a light meal that night not feeling all that hungry. I fell asleep next to her.

It was midnight when I was awoken by Valencia tossing and turning.

"Valencia, Valencia," I said desperately, "wake up."

She opened her eyes panting.

I had her in my arm. "It's only a dream," I said checking her temperature again.

"Damn," I thought, "the fever didn't reduce like I had originally made it for." I pulled out some more medicine but stronger than the last one I had given her. "Drink this, I know its a bit sour but it should help reduce the fever."

Once I gave her he medicine, I attempted to give her something to eat but she refused.

"Were you ever attacked while you were playing?" I asked her.

"No I wasn't," she replied.

I felt her heart rate. I was shocked on what I felt. "She's dying" I thought.

"Tristain, I don't feel to well," she said in a quiet voice."

"No, you can't die, you're still young," I began to weep, "here take some of my energy."

She refused it.

I sat their helpless on what to do.

"Tristain," she said, "you were more than a friend, I felt that, for the first time in my life, you were like a brother to me."

I was shocked on what she had just said.

"I know Valencia," I said, "I felt the same way."

"Good-bye, Tristain, I'll always remember you," she said.

The flame on her head went out. She passed away.

"VALENCIA!" I yelled.

It was hours before I could gather myself back together.

I put her on my back and went to go find a place to bury her.

After a few minutes of searching, I came across a boulder that was off to the side some distance.

An hour went by when I finally made a hole big enough to fit Valencia inside. I picked her up and set her down in the hole. Then I put the dirt of her.

"You were a true friend Valencia," I said.

Then I engraved the stone to show who was buried here.

I went back to camp and tried to get some sleep. Eventually I fell asleep only to be woken up every couple of hours by the dreams I had about Valencia.

Morning came and I set off not having any breakfast or any training.

Sometime later the egg hatched and a young Chimchar emerged from it.

I checked the pokedex to find out that it was a female with emerald green eyes.

I picked her up and held her in my arm and played with her before giving her a name.

"I'll call you, Lily," I said smiling weakly, "sound good?"

She hugged me.

From that moment, I knew that their was something special about this Chimchar.


	2. Chapter 2

12 years later

"Are we almost there?" asked the Monferno.

"Almost Lily," I replied, "it's just up ahead."

There was a trainer (me) with a Monferno named Lily, in which we had stopped for lunch near a forest.

Lily is a 12 year old female Monferno who has been with me since birth.

As we finished up lunch, I said to Lily, "Why don't you take this time to play and get some exercise?"

I decided that she needed a break for once.

As I cleaned the dishes, Lily took off so she could play in the forest and still be insight so that I could see her.

As I finished up the dishes, I looked up and thought to myself that she was playing one of her games again.

/

I had taken off and lost track of my surroundings and saw something up ahead.

As I approached it, it turned out to be a Riolu. The Riolu was unconscious and was badly injured.

As I helped it onto my back, I carried it back to camp where Tristain would bandage up the Riolu.

Once the Riolu was on my back, I walked the mile that was between me and the camp. An hour later I returned to camp tired from carrying the Riolu on my back.

/

After an hour went by, I began to get worried that she was attacked by someone or something. I was just about to go out and look for her when she came back with a Riolu.

After Lily returned, I took the Riolu off of Lily's back and bandaged up on what I could find. He had what looked like to be some minor cuts and bandaged them up. I never noticed the injury on his right forearm.

/

Agustin is a young Riolu who grew up in the forest with his parents Waylon and Vivian. They had taken him on their usual walk to a park where other Pokemon played as well.

After spending some time with the other Pokemon, it was mid-afternoon and my mom told me that we were leaving soon.

We were on a walk back from the park when I was separated from my parents by an unknown entity. "AGUSTIN!" yelled Vivian. That's when I got scared and took off in the opposite direction where Lily had first found me.

As I ran, I was attacked multiple times and each time I was attacked, I had no choice but to fight back. I was able to defeat each of my opponents but I got weaker each time.

I had escaped the forest and onto the trail where I passed out due to exhaustion and weakness. It was sometime later when Lily came along and found me lying on the ground.

/

It was a warm afternoon and we were on our walk back from the park when something caught my eye. That's when we were attacked.

After we were attacked Agustin was separated from me and Waylon. "AGUSTIN!" I yelled, but it was to late and I never saw Agustin again.

Waylon and I fought the opponent for some time before it blinded us with a Sand Attack and fled.

Waylon had stumbled backwards a bit and hit his head on a rock. Luckily enough it was only a bump and not an injury.

After I had recovered, I looked for Waylon and found him a few feet away unconscious. I was able to get him up.

"Waylon," I asked, "are you OK?"

"Yeah," he replied, a little drowsy,"I'm fine." He was rubbing his head where he hit the rock.

I put an arm around his shoulders and he did the same to me and helped him to his feet.

"Have you seen Agustin?" I asked.

"No, I haven't," he said, "I was going to ask you the same thing."

Once we were back on our feet, we went to go find Agustin.

/

Once it was awake I asked, "What's your name?"

He replied with a snotty attitude "Agustin and I'm 10 years old. Who the hell are you?"

"A bit feisty are we, well, that's no way to treat your elders," I replied, "alright where does it hurt."

He pointed to his right forearm. That's were I used a Potion and then some gauze over the wound.

"Alright," I said, "that should do it for now. Does it hurt anywhere else?"

"No," he said.

"For now get some rest," I said, "I'll wake you up when dinner is ready."

As I finished bandaging up Agustin, Lily thought that I was giving him too much attention and she ran off into the forest. After she left, I had to go after her but I didn't want to leave Agustin alone.

"Lily wait," I called.

I grabbed Agustin and chased after her into the forest.

Once in the forest, I searched for Lily while Agustin complained about the situation he was in and that he shouldn't be here.

"Lily, where are you?" I thought, "why did you have to run off like this?"

"Why am I even here?" he complained, "I shouldn't even be alive. I should be dead."

"Be thankful that you're alive and that Lily found you." I said, "once this is over, I'll take you back to your parents, how's that sound?"

"Fine," he said with an attitude, "but I don't want to be in any part of this."

"Fine," I said, "let's just get this over with."

Then we heard a scream and I ran towards it.

"Lily!" I yelled.

"Tristain!" I heard Lily faintly coming from farther in the forest. Thanks to the hearing of the demon, I was able to get to her quickly.

Just in time I protected Lily from an attack from something that I couldn't tell what it was.

From the energy it gave off, I put up a barrier to counteract the attack and to protect me, Lily, and Agustin. Whatever attacked Lily, fled while the smoke was clearing.

Lily was weak from defending herself, so I had to heal her on the spot.

"Am I going to die Tristain?" she asked.

I could tell she was scared. "You're not gonna die," I replied, "now hold still while I heal you."

After the smoke cleared, I grabbed Lily and Agustin and took to the trees with the aura flaring at my palm.

Agustin was holding onto my right shoulder and I had Lily in my left hand.

For some time I followed the strange aura. As I came closer to a strange aura that I found, it turned out to be two Lucario's. That's when I jumped down to the ground, and both Lucario's were surprised at my presence.

/

It was some time later when me and Waylon were following an aura that we hadn't seen before.

"Waylon?" I called.

"What is it Vivian?" he replied.

"What do you think it is that we're following?" I asked in return.

"I don't know, but we'll soon find out." he said.

That's when something jumped down from behind us and we both turned around

/

"Don't be frightened. I'm here to help," I said.

I explained that I was after something that attacked Lily and they were after the same thing that attacked Agustin and themselves.

As we continued to the nearest opening, I explained the situation that we were in and that's where we found the thing that attacked us.

/

The male Lucario is taller than the average Lucario and has brown eyes. He is 28 year of age, and his name is Waylon, he has a scar running just above his right eye, across his nose and ending underneath his left eye.

The female Lucario is smaller than Waylon, but is an average size Lucario. She is 26 years of age, has hazel eyes, and her name is Vivian.

/

As we entered the space we were confronted by the being in which it turned out to be a Nidoking far larger and stronger than any normal Nidoking.

I gave Agustin to Lily and told her to protect him. "Here watch him for me will ya?" I said.

Then I told Waylon and Vivian to be ready to fight as I conjured up a Bone Rush to start the attack. "You two with me."

I was the first to attack, then Waylon and Vivian followed.

As the fight drew on I began to realized that Waylon and Vivian were starting to tire out, but since I had the 'Nine Tailed Demon' inside of me, ~ the seal being located on my left arm ~ I had energy to spare.

We continued the fight for another hour.

"Waylon, Vivian," I said, "don't give in. The fights not over yet."

With one blow it took out both Waylon and Vivian and they were smashed into a rock.

"Damn," I thought, "I have no choice but to use it then."

With this, I unleashed the full Dragon Demon and finished up the fight myself.

With one fatal blow, I yelled "Fuuton Resanshurikan."

Once the fight was over, I withdrew the demon and went over to the Nidoking. That's when I noticed it had a strong aura, I withdrew all the aura it had and returned what belonged to Waylon, Vivian, and myself.

I attempted to heal them but couldn't, because they were too badly injured. That's when both Agustin and Lily ran to my side. Agustin began to weep by his mother's side.

Vivian tried to comfort Agustin as she was lying there helpless to do anything. That's when Lily put an arm around Agustin and let him cry into her.

I explained to him that there was nothing I could do. "I'm sorry Agustin, there's nothing I can do," I said.

As they passed on, the Nidoking got back up - thought I forgot about the Nidoking, well some what - I took a life risking move and withdrew the aura out of both Lucario's and combined it with my aura.

With the remaining power that was left, I finished the fight with a devastating blow.

"Dragon flame," I yelled and my entire body was enveloped with fire.

That's when I was able to beat the Nidoking and destroyed it so it wouldn't be able to cause anymore destruction.

I went back over to Agustin and held him in my arms and let him cry into my shoulder.

After that, I gave Agustin to Lily so I could bury both Waylon and Vivian in the spot on where they had died and engraved the rock with their names and how they died along with a symbol so that I can easily identify it again in the future.

In that same area, Valencia had died there many years before.

We went back to the camp and explained to Agustin that he should become part of team, but he refused to join and wanted to wander around lonely and unwanted.

I told him that he wasn't unwanted and that I could take him in as a friend. But he refused the offer.

Then a thought came to mind, "Agustin," I said, "why not spend the night with us before leaving?"

"Leave me alone," he said in an angry voice.

"Agustin," I said worriedly, "I don't want to see you like this."

"I don't care just leave me alone," he said.

Once Lily fell asleep, I found Agustin over by a rock sitting by himself. I went over and started to talk to him. "Beautiful night isn't it?"

"What do I care," he shot back, "what do I care, I don't have any parents and you got Lily."

"Wha~? Hey, don't say that, if it wasn't for Lily, you wouldn't be here. So just be thankful that you are here." I said.

I pick him up and let him weep into me again.

After that he joined the team, and for the next few days, both me and Lily took care of Agustin.


	3. Chapter 3

Just as we started up our journey again, that's when i heard some when I heard someone call my name.

"Tristain!" I heard some call.

I turned around and was tackled by a young girl a few younger than me.

I sat their supporting her weight as well as my weight. I put an arm around her to show her that I cared.

"Ari," I said getting up, "it's been years since I last saw you. What have you been up to?"

"Not much, other than training," she replied.

"Really?" I said, "since you're a trainer, you wanna have a friendly battle?"

"What for?" she asked.

"Just to see on how much you've improved from when you first became a trainer," I replied.

She sent out a Torterra.

"Lily," in said, "you can go first."

She took a defensive position ready to fight.

"Torterra, use Leaf Storm," She said.

"Dodge then use Ember," I said.

She dodged the storm then used ember. Direct hit.

Moving moments before it went by, I held Agustin in my arms.

"Torterra, use Earthquake." she said.

It hit Lily hard.

"Another attack like that and she's down," I thought, "Lily come back. You're up Agustin."

Agustin jumped out of my arms and to his stance.

"A Riolu?" Ari pulled out her pokedex.

I waited for her to finish.

"Agustin, use Aura Sphere," I said.

"Torterra, counter it with Magical Leaf," she called.

By now the Torterra was worn out.

"Agustin get in close using Quick Attack, then follow it up by using another Aura Sphere," I said.

It hit the Torterra hard on the back.

"Nice idea of using two different moves to take down my Torterra, you're the first to take her down," she said.

"Thanks," I replied, "you trained her well. Agustin, come back. Lilt, do you think you can still battle?"

She nodded.

"Alright, you're up then," I said.

"Go, Lopunny," she said, "Lopunny use Dizzy Punch."

"Lily hold your ground until I say," I said.

The Lopunny came closer to Lily. "Now jump then use Mach Punch."

Lily jumped on my command and hit the Lopunny over the head sending it to the ground.

"Lopunny, can you get up?" she called.

The Lopunny got up but it staggered a bit.

"Lopunny, use Jump Kick," she said.

"Dodge then use Flamethrower," I said.

The Flamethrower hit the Lopunny.

"Lopunny, return," Ari said.

"That was a good match," I said walking to Ari.

That's when I heard her sniff.

"Ari?" I was a bit worried.

I saw drop to the ground crying.

I walked over to her giving her a hug. I let cry into my chest.

"Ari, what's wrong?" I was trying to figure out on what had happened.

"I'm just glad you're ok," I heard her say in-between sobs.

I let her continue to cry for some time.

She finally stopped crying before sitting next to me. I kept my arm around her for comfort.

It was sometime before I asked her.

"What have you been up to since I last saw you?" I asked.

"Not much except for training," she said still sad.

"What made you upset earlier?" I asked her.

She didn't answer.

I knew something was wrong.

"Ari, I'm worried about you, why don't you tell me what's wrong," I said to her.

I allowed her to cuddle up to me.

She finally explained to me that her mother died a few years ago and when she saw the Lopunny faint, it reminded her of her mother dying.

"Poor thing, come here," I gave her another hug.

She started to cry again.

"It's ok Ari," I said, "I'm here for you."

I let her cry for a bit longer. I offered her water and she took it.

"Take small sips, ok?" I said keeping an arm around her, "it'll help calm you down."

"Thank you," she replied.

I made sure she was comfortable enough to join up with me and help her with her training.

She agreed to teaming up with me and together, we continued on.


	4. Chapter 4

2 months later.

"Tristain, are we almost their yet? It's freezing." Ari complained.

"Almost." I replied. "And I told you to dress properly before we headed to Snowpoint City."

We had traveled long and far all across Sinnoh. But I rarely ever go up to Snowpoint City.

Snowpoint City is the farthest moss northern city of the Sinnoh region and it is the coldest.

As we went through the blizzard to Snowpoint City, I knew that we might be in trouble of getting frost bite. But we had come to far to turn back now.

"We're almost there." I said. "About another mile or so and we should be at Snowpoint City."

"Tristain, the blizzard is becoming stronger, I think we should take shelter somewhere." Ari said.

"Just up ahead. There's a house. We can take shelter there until the storm passes." I replied.

As we made our way to the house, the blizzard intensified. Our visibility lessened and became more and more harder to see what was ahead of us.

Just in time. We made it into the house.

"That was a close one." Ari said.

"You ok, Ari?" I asked.

"I'm fine." she replied.

"For now, let's stay here until it passes." I said.

"Ok." she replied. "I'll get the fire started."

As she got the fire started, I decided to get dinner going.

"Come on out Lily." I said.

"Where are we?" asked Lily.

Over the last two month Lily had evolved into an Infernape. She had battled long and hard to evolve, proving herself worthy of coming with me and Ari to Snowpoint City.

"We're close to Snowpoint City," I replied. "but I need your help in making dinner."

That's when I heard a scream from the other room.

"Ari." I said running to the other room "Are you ok?"

"It's nothing Tristain." she said rubbing her hand. "I only burnt myself."

"Here let me see." I said walking over to her. "It's only a minor burn, nothing too serious."

I cleaned and bandaged the wound before heading back to the kitchen.

"What was that about?" Lily asked.

"Ari had burned herself, that's all." I replied.

"Shall we get dinner started?" she asked.

As me and Lily got dinner going, Ari had turned on the T.V.

"Tristain, Lily. Come check this out." Ari called.

Me and Lily came out to the living room.

"What's going on?" Lily asked.

"Take a look." she replied.

That's when we were in trouble.

"We don't have long then." I said. "Let's eat dinner and we can head out before it gets worse. Agustin come on out."

Agustin was still a Riolu and hasn't had much training before heading up to Snowpoint City. What I had found out from him is that he doesn't like to fight and I respected that.

After dinner, we left the house and headed towards Snowpoint City. The blizzard outside had gotten worse when we left the house.

"We're almost their." I shouted over the defining wind.

I turned around to see if Ari was still behind me. That's when I noticed she was far behind. I waited for her to catch up.

"Tristain, I can't go any farther." she said.

"Here." I said turning around. "Get on my back. I'll carry you the rest of the way."

She did what I had told her.

It wasn't too long before we arrived in Snowpoint City. By now it was sunset and the place looked beautiful on first glance. We had finally made it to Snowpoint City.

"Ari, take a look." I said.

She peered over my shoulder at the scenery. I set her down so she could see the full beauty of it.

That's when she stumbled a bit.

"Ok, I've got ya." I said catching her. "Put your arm around me. You can use me for support."

"Thanks Tristain." she replied.

I looked over at the temple that was standing over the city. I knew what was inside and I was ready for it. This time it's mine to get. Hopefully it'll work and not go wrong. The last few attempts I made at it failed miserably.

After some time looking at the beautiful scenery that was before us, I decided we should find a place to stay.

"Come on Ari. Let's get you inside, ok?" I said.

"Ok." she replied.

After a few taking a few steps, she fell.

"Ari!" I cried. "Are you ok? Ari?" I knew something was wrong.

I put her onto my back again and took her to the PokeCenter.

"Please, you gotta help me." I said. "She's in trouble."

"Follow me. Let's get her into one of the rooms so she can rest." Nurse Joy said.

"Thank you." I replied.

I followed her into the nearest room where I set her down onto the bed.

"Nurse Joy? Do think she'll make it?" I asked.

"She'll make it. But for now she needs to rest." Nurse Joy replied.

"Thank you." I replied. "I'll watch over her for the time being."

"Lily, Agustin, come on out." I said bringing out Lily and Agustin from their Pokeballs.

"Are we in Snowpoint City?" asked Lily.

"We are, but we're in the PokeCenter until Ari wakes up." I replied.

"What happened to Ari?" Agustin asked.

"She felt weak from the blizzard, so I had to carry her the rest of the way here." I replied.

It had grown late and Agustin was the first to fall asleep. I held him in my arms and acted as a bed for him. Soon after Lily fell asleep in the other bed and I slept on the floor with Agustin only a few feet away from me.

Some time later Agustin woke me up.

"Tristain, I'm scared." he said.

"Did you have a nightmare?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Come here, you can sleep with me." I replied and he crawled in the sleeping bag.

"You ok?" I asked him.

He didn't reply.

I decided to pet him to show that I understood how he felt and to give him some comfort. I allowed him to cry into me until he felt better.

"Get some rest, ok?" I said.

"Ok." he replied still a bit sad.

Some time passed after Agustin fell asleep, I felt something was wrong but I couldn't figure it out on what it was.

"Tristain? You still up?" asked Lily.

"Yeah. Why? What's wrong?" I replied.

"It's just that I've been thinking about what I've been through lately and all the traveling we've done for the last 12 years." she replied.

"Does that bug you?" I asked.

"A bit. It's just that I never got a chance to meet my mother or my father." she said.

"Your mother... Your mother was a great Pokemon to have my side, she stayed by my side through thick and thin and I stayed by her's, but I don't know anything about your father. She never told me who _he_ was. She never mentioned him much." I replied.

Silence came over the room.

"You ok?" I asked.

"I'm going back to bed." she replied.

I got up and walked over to where Lily was sleeping and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I know you've been through a lot lately, that's because I have a lot of study to do for Professor Rowan. Once it's over, we can find a place to settle down and hopefully you can find a mate." I said to her.

"Thanks Tristain." she said.

I noticed she had a few tears in her eyes.

"Here." I said picking her up. "It's ok if you need to cry every so often. If you do need to cry, just let me know, ok?"

She nodded and began to cry into my chest.

I let her cry for some before heading off to sleep again.

The following morning I decided to head into Snowpoint Temple and attempt to catch Regigigas. I knew it would be a tough challenge to face even for Lily.

Before I went to the temple I withdrew my Blaziken. He and Lily would be helping me in capturing the Regigigas. From past times I had trouble capturing him. And now I have finally thought of a plan that would capture it once and for all.

I headed back to the room where Ari was still asleep.

"Agustin, you stay here and watch Ari, ok?" I said to him.

"But I wanna come with you." he said.

"No." I said. "It's too risky for you to take on a Regi even in the form you're in now."

"But I don't wanna stay." he protested.

"You're not coming for this one. I've got a selected team that would help me in the battle." I replied.

I knew he really wanted to come but I didn't want to risk losing him.

"Lily." I said. "You're with me."

"Who's the other member that's gonna be with us?" Lily asked.

"Don't worry about it." I replied.

We headed to the temple where we were going to fight and capture the Regigigas.

"Griffin." I said. "Come on out."

Standing before us was a male Blaziken. He has been with me since the research I did in Hoenn Region and is one of the few Pokemon that has been through a lot in his life.

I filled him in on what was going on and we headed out towards Snowpoint Temple.

"I'm leaving the Riolu here to watch over Ari while we're gone. Take good care of him." I said to Nurse Joy.

"Ok. I'll make sure he stays in good health upon your return." Nurse Joy replied.

Then we headed out leaving Agustin and Ari here to be watched over by Nurse Joy.

Once outside, we headed for Snowpoint Temple. I knew the risk that I was taking. It would be dangerous if the temple were to collapse on us while we were battling the Regigigas.

Once inside the temple, we found three pillars that belonged to the three Regi's.

"Regirock, Regice, and Registeel." I said. "These are the three that you need to have when you battle Regigigas."

"How do you know this?" asked Lily.

"He knows this by his research." Griffin replied. "I was his partner when he caught them.

"You~ you fought against the Regi's?" Lily asked in shocked.

"Of course." he replied. "Each of the battles were tough, even for him."

"All right let's get things started." I said. That's when Regigigas appeared before us. "Use whatever means necessary."

"Right." they replied in unison.

"Follow my lead." I said conjuring up a Bone Rush.

I made the first attacked. Followed by Griffin, then Lily attacking in unison.

The Regigigas went flying back towards the back wall of the temple. With its Slow Start ability, we had the upper advantage.

"Remember, it has a "Slow Start" ability." I said. "We have the upper advantage."

"Right." they both replied.

The Regigigas was up now. That's when it used Super Power.

"Be careful." I said. "Try not to lose your footing."

We scattered to avoid being hit by the rocks that were flying at us.

Once the attack was over we continued our charge on Regigigas.

"Dragon Flame." I said.

Dragon Flame is a move similar to that of a Flamethower, but it's much more powerful.

Both Lily and Griffin used Flamethower on the Regigigas, making it a triple attack from three fire type moves.

That's when he started moving forward through our attack.

"This isn't good." I thought. "He's stronger than I thought if he can move through that."

I was hit hard by Regigigas's Hammer Arm sending me into the back wall.

"Tristain!" they both yelled.

"I'm all right." I said staggering to my feet.

"Griffin, Double kick. Lily, Mach Punch." I said while getting ready to use a Close Combat on the  
>Regigigas.<p>

It hit him hard.

Once we were all back on the ground, I felt an electrical impulse go up through my body.

"Tristain!" Griffin said. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." I replied. "It's nothing."

"I don't think we can keep this up much longer." Lily said.

"Just a little more." I said, "If we can weaken it a bit more I can catch it."

It had used Shadow Ball and we barely were able to dodge it in time.

"One more attack should do." Griffin said. "I think he is tiring out as well after all the damage we've done to it."

I charged forward releasing the full nine tailed dragon.

"Dragon Burst." I yelled.

Both Lily and Griffin used Flare Blitz on Regigigas.

That did considerable damage to him.

"That should do it." I said.

That's when it got back up.

"What!" we said together.

"How can it get up after all we did to it?" Lily said in shock.

"Damn." I thought. "This isn't good. My right arm is broken and I'm barely able to use it. I'm forced to used my powers to move it. Not only that but my left ankle may be broken as well."

"We can't go on like this." Griffin said.

"I have no other choice but to fully demonize and take him out once and for all." I thought.

"What are thinking Tristain?" Lily asked.

"I have an idea." I said. "But it requires you two to use Overheat on me."

"Tristain! Don't do it. It's too risky to take." Griffin said.

"It's the only way." I replied.

"What's the only way?" Lily asked.

"No time to explain." I said. "Here it comes."

Both Lily and Griffin dodged. I stayed where I was.

"TRISTAIN!" Lily yelled.

Using the remaining strength I had, I fully demonized and started to lift it's arm up from where I was standing.

"RRRRAAAAHHHH!" I yelled.

"Tri~ Tristain?" Lily was scared at this point in the battle when she saw the demon standing before her.

"I told you not to use it." Griffin yelled.

"I have no other choice." I replied. "It's either we get him now or we die trying."

I started the attack again, this time using the walls to my advantage.

I used my claws to attack when jumping from wall to wall.

"Don't let his looks deceive you. He's still the same person you know." Griffin said.

Back wall. Direct hit.

She looked over at Griffin.

Front wall. Direct hit.

"Lily, stay focused." Griffin said.

Left wall. Direct hit.

"R~right." Lily replied still a bit scared.

Right wall. Direct hit.

I did this several times while Lily and Griffin used Flamethower after I attacked him.

"Now then." I said standing between them. "It's time for the final attack."

"Right." they replied.

"When I charge, you two will use Overheat on me intensifying my attacked." I said.

"Understood." they replied.

"Dragon Blitz." I said and began my charge.

That's when they used Overheat on me intensifying the attack to triple it's normal strength.

Dragon Blitz is the strongest fire type move that the dragon demon knows and would be strong on it's own. It would be a one hit KO, but in this case it's not, even at my maximum potential.

The moment I hit Regigigas, there was an explosion that shook the entire temple causing pieces of the ceiling to fall.

I warped back to where Lily and Griffin were standing.

"That should have done it." I said transforming back to my human form.

We waited for a few moments and it never got up.

I threw a pokeball at it and waited. Got it.

"That was a tough battle." I said picking up the pokeball and putting it on my belt.

That's when I dropped to my knees from all the pain that was from the battle.

I knew that I was in trouble. I had a broken right arm and a sprained ankle.

"Damn it, I didn't think this would happen." I said.

"Tristain!" I heard a voice just as I blacked out.

"Tristain? Can you hear me? Tristain?" The voice was faint but I couldn't tell if it was Ari's or if it was Lily's.

"Nurse Joy, I think he's coming around." said the voice.

"Tristain? Can you hear me?" she asked.

"Who's there? Who's calling me? Ari? Lily maybe?" I thought. "Can't... Stay awake... Much longer... Too... Tired to... Stay awake..."

I couldn't keep myself awake long enough to see who else was in the room.

"Tristain, please don't go." I heard someone say.

It was sometime when I finally woke up.

"Where am I?" I asked when I finally woke up.

"You're at the PokeCenter." replied Nurse Joy.

"How did I end up here?" I asked.

"I heard what you were going to do." Ari replied. "Agustin had filled me in on the situation after I had woken up."

"What about Griffin and Lily? Where are they?" I asked.

"Over in the recovery room. They were in bad shape when Ari found them." Nurse Joy replied.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"About three days." Ari replied.

"That long?" I said. "I'd thought I'd be out a bit longer."

"At first I thought you wouldn't wake up, but you never give up." replied Ari.

"Is it ok if I go see Lily and Griffin?" I asked.

"Not at this point. You still need to rest." Nurse Joy said.

"I just want to see if there ok, that's all." I said.

"If that's what you want." Nurse Joy said. "Follow me then."

I got out of bed and started to follow her when I stumbled.

Ari had caught me just as I fell.

"Thanks Ari." I said smiling to her a bit.

"Sure thing." she replied.

"It's usually the other way around." I said.

"Yeah, it usually is." she replied.

We followed Nurse Joy out of the room we were staying in and went to the recovery room where Lily and Griffin were.

"Mind if I ask where Agustin is?" I asked.

"He's in the recovery room watching over them." Ari replied.

We walked into the recovery room and Agustin was laying by Lily.

"Poor kid." I thought. "He's been worried sick about us. I knew he wanted to come with us but I didn't want him to get injured."

I walked over to Agustin and put my hand on his back. That's when he woke up.

"Hey." I said.

To his surprise, he jumped back a bit at what he saw before his eyes.

"Surprised to see me still alive and moving?" I said.

He nodded.

"Come here." I said picking him up with my left arm.

I let him cry. "I'm sorry I couldn't take you with me. I didn't want to get hurt or getting you killed." I said.

I looked up at Griffin and Lily. Both of them where in bad shape.

"Where were those two when you found them?" I asked Ari.

"They were huddled next to you trying to keep you alive as much as possible." Ari replied. "Lily especially. She wouldn't let go of you."

"I see. At least they did the right thing. But I feel bad for Lily. She looks to me more than just her trainer. I've been taking care of her for so long that she looks to me as an older brother." I said.

"She has been with you for a long time. I guess all those years with you has really grown on her." Ari said.

"What about transporting them here?" I asked.

"I put Lily on my back and Griffin had enough strength left to carry you here before he passed out." Ari replied.

"They were trained well. I just hope they can make a full recovery." I said.

"I hope so too." Ari replied.

"Come on." I said. "Let's head back to the room."

Once we got back to the room I went back to sleep with Agustin by my side.

"Hey Ari?" I said before falling asleep.

She looked over at me.

"Can you take care of Agustin until I make a full recovery?" I asked.

"Sure." she replied.

"I know it's hard for you to see me like this. I'm much stronger than this, but the battle was intense on me." I said.

"It was." she replied. "Most of the temple was destroyed on the inside."

With that said, I fell asleep.

It was sometime before I finally woke up again.

"Good morning." Ari said.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"It's 10:30 am." she replied.

"And how long have I been out this time?" I asked.

"This time, four days." she replied.

"Talk about a major headache." I said complaining.

"Here drink this. It'll help with the headache." she said giving me some aspirin and water.

"Thanks Ari." I replied.

I swallowed the aspirin.

"Any news on Griffin and Lily?" I asked setting down the water.

"They're up, but still weak from the battle." she replied. "How you feeling?"

"Still a bit weak." I replied. "I think I can manage."

At that moment Nurse Joy came in.

"Well, well." she said. "Look who's up. How are you feeling?"

"A bit weak, but I think I can manage." I replied.

"At least your awake and well." Nurse Joy said.

"How's Lily and Griffin looking?" I asked.

"They're doing just fine." she said. "As long as they get some rest, they should make a full recovery."

"That's good." I said relived to hear that they're ok and doing well. "Are they up at all?"

"They are." she replied. "But they should be getting some rest pretty soon."

"Is it ok if I go see them?" I asked.

"Once you get something to eat, then I'll be glad to take you to them." she said.

That's when Chansy brought in some food for me to eat.

"Thanks Chansy." I said.

"Chansy Chansy." it said.

"I'll come back in a few minutes." Nurse Joy said.

"How's Agustin doing?" I asked Ari.

"He's doing fine. He's outside playing with some of the other Pokemon." she replied. "He seems to prefer to sleep by your side every night."

"That's Agustin for ya." I said.

I ate my breakfast that Nurse Joy had given me to eat.

Some time passed and Nurse Joy came back in.

"I see you are doing well."

"Yeah." I replied.

"Follow me then." she said.

I got up and followed her to the recovery room.

I saw that Griffin and Lily were deep in a conversation and never noticed my presence.

"I see you two are having fun." I said interrupting their conversation.

"Tristain!" they both said in unison.

"Surprised to see me?" I said leaning on the door frame for support.

They both nodded.

"The important thing is that you two are ok." I said.

"How'd you break your arm?" Griffin asked.

"Remember when I was thrown against the wall from Regigigas's Hammer Arm?" I said.

They nodded.

"When I hit the wall, the force of it broke my right arm. But for some reason my left arm was unaffected by the hit." I replied.

"How was your left arm unaffected?" asked Lily.

"Just before Regigigas hit me, I blocked it trying to reduce some of the damage." I replied. "It did sustain some damage but not enough to break it."

"At least you didn't break both arms." Griffin said.

I laughed at his sense of humor he applied on me. "Yeah, that is a good thing." I said. "What were you guys talking about just before I entered, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Just getting to know each other that's all." Lily replied.

"Since we just met, I wanted to get to know her a bit." Griffin said.

"How did you meet Griffin?" Lily asked.

Silence filled the room.

Both me and Griffin looked away as we remembered how we meet.

"It's a sad story that me nor Griffin don't want to talk about." I said. "It's better if I didn't tell you. I think neither of us want to relive the events that had happened all those years back."

"It must've been pretty harsh for both of you to go through something that bad if it's that personal." Lily said feeling the sense that she had been through a lot herself.

"You two should get some rest." I said.

It was around midday when I got some lunch.

"Thanks Nurse Joy." I said.

"Tristain, what was that about earlier?" Ari asked.

"It's nothing." I replied. "Its just a bad memory that I don't want to share with others, ok?"

"I understand." Ari replied.

"I'm going back to bed." I said.

Over the next few days, I recovered from the battle. Griffin and Lily had fully recovered as well. Unfortunately for me, I still had to wear the cast on my arm.

"Nurse Joy?" I asked. "How much longer do I have to wear the cast?"

"About another week and a half, maybe two weeks." she replied.

"Try not to freeze the cast, ok Tristain?." Griffin said.

Considering it was cold outside, I really couldn't do much anyways with the cast.

"What have you been up to while I was asleep?" I asked Agustin.

"Playing with the other Pokemon." he replied.

"At least you weren't bored while I was recovering." I said.

Agustin stayed with me and helped me considerably with my research. Ari did some shopping while we stayed in Snowpoint City. Lily and Griffin stayed in the recovery room for the day and talked about what it was like in the Hoenn Region. I noticed they seemed to take in interest into each other. I was quite happy that Lily finally found someone to talk to about her life, which I respected and left them alone for the time being.

Over the next week I got some of my research done about breeding with different Pokemon and how they stay in a relationship.

It was quite difficult to get a lot of my research done with only my left arm. Since the fight, my right arm is still in the cast. Usually I would have more research notes done, but it only has to be done little by little.

That's when it came to mind. "I never thought about using Rare Candies in my research." I said. "I never even thought about see what kind of effect it would have in the relationship between Pokemon."

"What do you mean?" Agustin asked.

"What I mean is that Rare Candies would level up Pokemon by one level. But I never thought how it would work in a relationship between two Pokemon." I explained.

At that moment Ari came in.

"How's Lily and Griffin?" I asked.

"They're doing a lot better now." she replied. "So what do you have going on here?"

"Just some research that I'm doing for the professor." I replied.

"How's that going?" Ari asked.

"It's going well." I replied. "But slowly. It's taken me a lot longer to get my notes together."

That's when Nurse Joy came in.

"How's the arm feeling?" Nurse Joy asked.

"It's feeling better." I replied.

"It's about time we get the cast off." she said.

Nurse Joy had brought with her a small tool kit.

Once it was removed I tested my arm and sent some power through it.

With some effort I was able to send the power through but it was with force to manipulate it into a sphere.

"Take it easy, Tristain." Ari said.

"Since you had the cast on, your arm has weakened." Nurse Joy said. "It's going to take some time for it to go back to normal."

"I'll take it easy till it's fully healed." I replied.

"Why don't you take a break for awhile and get some fresh air." Agustin said.

"Thanks." I replied.

I stepped outside for a few minutes to look at the city as the evening sky faded into night.

I was outside for some time looking at Snowpoint City. It had been a good month since I've seen it.

I heard someone talking not too far off. I could faintly make out the voices as being Lily and Griffin.

I walked over to where I could here them better. I was on one of the branches so that they wouldn't realize that I was there.

"Griffin." I heard Lily say. She sounded upset. "I've taken a liking to Tristain, but this is different. The relationship between us is new to me."

"I know you've been with him since you were a child. But as you grow older, new things happen. some times you have to make sacrifices to just so that you can make new choices." he replied.

I knew what they were talking about. Lily had taken me as an older brother who cared for her ever since she was a child. Griffin on the other was was a completely different story. He took me as a father and respected me to make the right choices in battle and how to raise him properly.

"Your different from Tristain." she said. "He's always taken care of me and looked after me. I've always respected him for that. He's a great person to be around and he knows what he's doing when it comes to difficult situations."

"This is different." Griffin replied. "I've taken a liking to you as a lover and a mate. You are a gifted and talented Pokemon. Ever since we've met, I've always wanted someone to have as a mate. You are a very special Infernape. You have a kind heart and a kind spirit. That's what I like about you."

I didn't what to bother them so I stayed out of sight and down wind from them. I didn't want them to know that I was listening to their conversation.

"Can we go inside now?" Lily asked. "It's cold out here and I want to talk to Tristain about something."

"Come on sweetheart." he replied.

I waited for a few minutes before I left.

I jumped down from the tree and made my way back to the PokeCenter.

I took my time walking there. I was still thinking about the conversation between Griffin and Lily.

By the time I got back to the center, Ari was in the lobby waiting for me.

"Tristain!" she said in shock.

"Hey." I replied calmly.

"Where have been?" she asked a bit angrily.

"I went for a little walk." I didn't want to tell her about the conversation between Griffin and Lily.

"At least you're ok." she said giving me a hug.

"I'm sorry I worried you." I replied hugging her back.

"Come on." she said. "Everyone is waiting for you."

With that we went to the room and had dinner.

I noticed that Lily seemed a bit sad still.

"You ok Lily?" I asked.

She looked up at me. "I'm fine." she said putting on a smile.

I knew something was wrong.

After dinner Lily had pulled me out into the lobby.

"Is something the matter Lily?" I asked.

"I just want to know how you got your powers." she said.

"I'm not quite sure on how I got them. I've had the feeling that I was different from other people." I said. "It's an odd feeling knowing that you are different from others even though they don't know what you have to deal with."

I knew something was bugging here but I couldn't figure out what it was.

"Do you like me?" she asked.

I stood there in shock on what she had asked me.

"Do you like me?" she asked again.

"Just as a friend." I said. "But what makes you ask that?"

"I wanted to know on how you can use different attacks without being that type." she replied.

"Well, I guess you could call me a special type of person who could use martial art type moves as well as using aura based moves." I said.

She looked away for a moment.

"Lily?" I said getting her attention again. "What's bugging you? What's on your mind?"

"It's just that…" she trailed off.

"It's about the conversation you and Griffin had earlier tonight, isn't it?" I said.

She looked at me in shock.

"How~ how did you know?" she asked still a bit shocked.

"I was in the tree a couple of feet away from you two." I replied. "I stepped out to get some fresh air after being in center for so long. I had heard some voices some ways away so I decided to see who it was. When I saw it was you two, I hid in the tree to keep myself hidden for the time being."

She looked away for a bit.

"Look." I said placing a hand on her shoulder. "I know you like him, I'm not stopping you from being around him. He's a really nice Pokemon to be around and I respect that."

"Really?" she said looking at me trying to find some reassurance.

"Really." I said to her smiling.

"Thank you Tristain." she said smiling.

I had decided to pet her to give her some comfort.

"Thanks for calling a brother. It means a lot." I said. "I've always looked to you as a little sister."

With that said, she gave me a hug.

"I knew you cared for me." she said.

Griffin came into the room looking for us.

"There you two are." he said. "Ari needs to talk to you."

We had gone back to the room where found Ari sitting in the chair with Agustin in her arms.

"You needed me?" I asked her.

"It's Agustin." she replied.

I took him from her arms and placed a hand on his forehead.

"He's burning up." I said. "How'd he become ill?" I asked.

"He said he wasn't feeling well and fell over." she replied.

"Alright." I said. "I'll take it from here."

I checked his temperature. "It's only the flu." I said. "He should be fine in a couple of days. Just to be on the safe side I'm going to give him some medicine."

I had given him some cold medicine that would help reduce the fever.

"He should rest for the next few days." I said. "In the meantime, we should get some rest."

"Griffin? Will you be staying with us?" Lily asked.

"Of course I am." he replied.

"Each of you can take a bed. I'll watch over Agustin for the night." I said to everyone.

"Night everyone." Ari said.

"Night." Lily replied.

"Night." I replied.

"Night." Griffin replied.

We had gone to bed. I watched over Agustin for the night. Lily slept on the top bunk and Griffin slept on the bottom bunk. Me and Ari did the same thing with her on the top bunk and me on the bottom bunk. Agustin was sleeping in the same bunk I was in

It was around midnight when I had woken up. Agustin was sleeping restlessly in bed. Lily and Griffin were still in the same place as before, but Ari wasn't in her bed.

'Where could have gone.' I thought to myself.

I calmed Agustin down before I left the room to go find where Ari had gone to.

I walked out into the main lobby to find here standing outside.

"Couldn't sleep?" I asked her.

"Tristain? What are doing out here?" she asked in surprise.

"I came to see if you were ok, that's all." I replied.

"I'm fine." she said.

"You wanna talk about it?" I asked her.

"It's nothing personal, Tristain. It's just a dream that's been haunting me." she said.

"Well, if you want to ever talk about it, just let me know, ok?" I said.

"Thanks Tristain." she said.

"Come on, let's get inside." I said.

We both went back inside to our room and went to sleep.

Agustin was back to a restless sleep again. Lily and Griffin were still asleep in their beds. Ari went back to her bed and I went to my bed.

It took me longer to fall asleep than usual, but I eventually fell asleep.

It was the next morning when we decided to head out and go back to gathering research for the professor. I had spent enough time gathering up my notes to get part of my research done.

We gave back our room key and headed back through the cold that separated Snowpoint City and the rest of Sinnoh.

Several hours passed when we finally made it to Mt. Coronet. We made a small picnic and continued on through the mountain. During the time in the mountain, I noticed something different about Ari that I never noticed before.

"Hold up a sec, Ari." I called out to her.

"Is something the matter, Tristain?" she asked.

"I noticed something on your neck that I've never seen before. You mind telling me what it is." I said.

"It's a birth mark." she said putting a hand on it.

"It doesn't look like a birth mark to me." I said.

She looked away.

"Are you hiding something from me, Ari?" I asked.

"I~I don't want to talk about it, ok?" she said.

We walked in silence for the rest of the trip through the mountain.

It was around dusk when we made it out. We finished our travel by going to the nearest town and finding a place to stay.

We found a house in Eterna City and got dinner going.

During dinner I didn't want to bring up the topic again. I assumed she wouldn't want to talk about it.

"What did you think of Snowpoint City?" I asked Ari.

"It was a nice place." she replied.

"I thought you might enjoy it up their for the time being." I said to her.

"I did enjoy seeing Snowpoint City for the first time." she said.

All our Pokemon were eating and chatting with each other.

Ari's Lopunny had caught my eye. On the back of her neck was the same mark that I noticed on Ari's neck.

I took a mental note of it and would do some research of it later.

We finished up dinner and gotten our supplies ready for the next day when we would leave back to see Prof. Rowan in Twinleaf Town.

We turned on the tv to see what the weather would be like for the next few days between cities.

We were in luck. It wouldn't be raining for the next few days.

We returned our Pokemon to their Pokeballs and we went to bed for the night.


	5. Chapter 5

It had been two days since Valencia's death and I was left to take care of her daughter.

Ever since then, she had kept me company. It taught me a lot on how to take care of new born Pokemon.

"I haven't even named yet, now have I?" I said to her.

I thought for a few minutes.

"How about Lily?" I said scratching her chin.

She looked at me smiling. I could tell that she liked the name.

For the time being, I fed her, took care of her, and changed her diaper when needed.

Even though she was a new born, she needed a lot of attention.

When ever she was sleeping, I would travel or try to get some extra rest under a tree.

The journey itself was longer with Lily. She needed to be fed every couple of hours and rested in between each feeding period.

I took a break whenever she needed food. Afterwards, I was sleeping for a couple of hours to get back some sleep I didn't get during the night.

As I rested with Lily curled up on my lap, I had recounted the journey I had taken from the time I started from being Pro. Rowan's assistant to meeting Valencia, to the present time.

All the memories I had were times in which I had no clue what lay ahead or where it would lead me. Each day would bring me something new.

Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

Several hours later, I woke up with Lily still asleep in my lap. Even as a newborn, she still seemed quite capable of something more than... Then it dawned on me. Something wasn't right. I picked her up and place a hand on her forehead.

"She needs medical attention and fast," I said aloud.

I gathered up my supplies and gave Lily a little vitamin water to help with the fever.

'Even though it's not enough to reduce the fever, it'll help keep it at bay for as long as it can,' I thought. 'I gotta move fast and get her to the nearest Poke Center.'

I pulled out a map to find the closest town.

"Let's see. I'm on Route 214," I said. "The closest place I can go is through Route 222 to Sunyshore City."

I returned the map to my pack and headed towards Route 222.

'I gotta act fast,' I thought. 'If I don't get to the PokeCenter, she could die.'

I hurried to the Poke Center as fast as I could taking any shortcuts that presented itself.

"Hold on for a little while longer Lily," I thought. "We're almost there."

The city drew nearer and nearer with every step that I took. I knew time was running out.

'If the fever gets any higher, she might not make a full recovery and could suffer some sort of brain damage,' I thought to myself.

The PokeCenter wasn't too far off once I entered the city.

"Only a few more minutes Lily," I said. "We're almost there."

I had slowed down just enough so that I didn't run into another person that was standing in the PokeCenter.

"What's going on?" I asked to the guy in front of me.

"Apparently a lot of Pokemon have been getting sick lately and no one knows why," he replied.

"What are you here for?" I asked him.

"I'm picking mine up," he said getting the Pokeball from Nurse Joy.

I had finally got my breath, then asked, "What kind of Pokemon do you have?"

"A Buizel," he said releasing the Pokemon from its Pokeball.

That's when he noticed the Chimchar in my arms.

"This looks bad," he said. "Even at this age, your Chimchar looks very ill."

"I don't think there's any room left in the PokeCenter," another kid said.

"He's right. From the looks of it, it seems this place is quite full," the first one replied.

"What's going on over here?" Nurse Joy asked coming out of a crowd of people.

"It's his Chimchar," he said. "It looks very ill."

"Chansey, get Medical Bay 3 prepped," she said. "We'll do everything we can."

"Thank you Nurse Joy," I replied.

"Mind if I ask the name of your Chimchar and how old it is," said Nurse Joy.

"Her name is Lily and she's about a week old," I replied.

"Thank you," she said. "We'll take good care of her."

I handed Lily over to Nurse Joy and she went in the same direction.

As she went through I heard some people complaining about not being helped first.

"Whose Chimchar is that anyways?" I heard one yell.

"I think you should leave before they~" he started to say.

"I think it was him over there," another said.

"Too late," I said.

I ran back the way I came and made a blind jump onto a rooftop and nearly lost my balance.

'That was a close call,' I thought to myself. 'Good thing I used my Flash Step at the last second. Next time I'd better be careful on how I land.'

That's when I heard something behind me. I flared up my powers ready for an attack.

"I remember you," I said realizing the person in front of me.

"Get inside and quick," she said.

I went through the window and into a room. I looked around the room and realized that this was the same group of people that was sitting on the couches plus a few of the people who was nearby when Nurse Joy came to look at my Chimchar.

"Why are you helping me?" I asked them.

"Your Chimchar was in more danger than anyone else's Pokemon in the center," she replied. "The name's Rachel."

"Tristain, nice to meet you," I replied.

"We were thinking of keeping you at an abandoned house on the outskirts of town," Rachel said.

"I think I know which house you are talking about," I said. "I saw a house on my way into town."

"That's good," another kid said.

"It's best if you stay there until tomorrow," said a third. "Just in case they try to continue the search later today."

"Thanks you guys," I said. "I don't think I could battle all of their Pokemon without injuring someone."

We all laughed at that.

A couple of the kids showed me the way to the house and went back to get some food for me.

"Until we return, don't do anything stupid," Rachel said.

"We'll have a couple of kids come and get you if anything happens," another said.

"Don't worry," I said. "If anything does happen I'll hide in the woods. It'll be easy for me to hide in the forest at night."

"How so?" a third asked.

"For starts I travel a lot and I somehow get into trouble in this kind of situation. Plus I'm an expert at hiding in forests," I said answering most of their questions. "Any other questions? No? Go now go on before anyone see you here and alerts the rest of the group."

With that they left back towards the town.

Several hours later a knock came at the door. I used Aura Sight to see through the door. It was one of the kids from before. I opened the door to let her in.

At first she seemed kind of shy.

"Come inside before you are noticed," I said to her and moving aside.

I could hear in the distance someone running.

Just as I closed the door I heard someone yell "I thought I saw someone over here a minute ago."

"Are you sure you saw someone Billy?" another said.

"You always say you saw someone but there's no one there," a third one said.

"Let's go," the first one said.

I waited for a few minutes before saying, "That was a close one. Any sooner and they would of found us."

She seemed to be standing in a corner and the food placed on the table.

"Might as well let you stay here for the night," I said to her. "I don't see any point in sending you back in the dark."

I went over to the fire place and set up some kindling. Once it was set up I took a few steps back and let loose a weak Flamethrower to get the fire started.

"This should last us a few hours," I said. "Come on lets get something to eat, OK?"

She nodded.

I got out another plate and gave her some of my food.

"What's your name anyway? If you don't mind me asking," I asked her.

"Josie," she said shyly.

"Nice to meet you Josie. My name is Tristain," I said to her. "How old are you?"

"Six," she replied.

"She's pretty young to be doing this kind of thing," I thought. "At least you have good friends that look after you, right?"

She nodded.

"Finish up your food and I'll make you a place to stay, OK?" I said to her.

We finished up our dinner and I cleaned up the place. I took the plates to the kitchen and she waited out in living room. By the time I had gotten done, I had gone out back to the living room and saw her playing with one of my Pokeballs.

"I see you found one of my Pokemon," I said. "Here let me see it."

I took the Poke ball and released the Pokemon that was inside of it.

"Josie, this is Buizel," I said.

"Bui, Bui," said Buizel.

Josie had ran next to me and peered at Buizel from behind my leg.

"It's ok, Josie," I said. "He doesn't bite. He's very friendly."

"Friendly?" she asked.

"Of course," I replied picking him up from where he was standing. "From your reaction, you seem to be scared of Buizel."

She nodded.

"Don't worry, he doesn't bite," I said trying to reassure her.

"Bui, Bui," he said in agreement.

I bent down to let her pet Buizel. She started to reach out to pet him but pulled away abruptly.

"Ok," I said. "We'll do this another time. Buizel, return."

I returned the Pokeball to my backpack.

"Come on, lets get some sleep," I said to her.

We went to get ready for the night.

'She didn't bring any other clothing,' I thought to myself. 'For now I'll give her one of my old t-shirts for the night.'

I had gotten ready for bed and went over to my backpack.

"Here, Josie," I said. "You can use one of my old shirts for the night."

I left the room to give some privacy and some time to change.

"You can come in now," I heard her say.

"You ready for bed?" I asked her.

"I'm ready," she replied.

"Let's get you tucked in and maybe I'll tell you one my stories," I said to her.

She crawled into bed and I tucked her in.

"Can you tell me one of your stories now?" she asked.

"Sure thing," I said.

I told her on how I had first started out as a trainer and what I was planning on doing at that time.

Once I had finished, I noticed she was asleep.

"Good night, Josie," I said.

I left the room and went to my bedroom.

"She's beginning to trust me," I said to myself. "All she needs is some time to get to know me."

I got ready for bed and fell asleep pretty quickly.

It was several hours later when I awoke. I noticed a light on outside of my room. Without even thinking, I got up, went to the door, and peered out to see what was going on.

I walked over to Josie's room and peeked in.

'She's still asleep,' I thought. 'Could someone have broken in?'

I looked around to see if there was any entry point. I couldn't find a single entry point throughout the house.

'Maybe I had turned the light on while I was sleeping,' I thought to myself. 'I'll turn it off and go back to bed.'

The next morning, I had gotten up to do some Tai Chi.

During my training I recounted the events that had happened the day before.

'Something doesn't add up,' I thought. 'Alkez would have told me. He told me I never got up. Maybe Josie went to the restroom and forgot to turn of the hall light.'

I flared up my aura for some basic aura Tai Chi.

"When she gets up I'll ask her," I thought finishing my Tai Chi for the morning.

It had been a couple of hours when Josie woke up.

"Morning Josie," I said to her.

"Morning Tristain," she said rubbing the last bit of sleep from her eyes.

"Do you want something to eat?" I asked her.

I thought I'd give her some time to wake up before I ask her if she had gotten up.

She nodded then said, "Can I have some cereal."

"Sure thing," I said pulling out a couple of bowls.

I had given her cereal first before I poured myself some cereal.

"Josie, can I ask you something?" I said to her.

"Like what?" she said.

"Did you ever wake up last night to use the restroom?" I asked her.

She took a couple of minutes to think, then answered, "No. I don't remember waking up last night after I went to bed. Why"

"I had found the hall light on," I said to her.

"Maybe you turned it on," she said.

"I never turned it on," I said.

"How would you know if you did or not?" she asked me.

"You see, I'm uh... I'm..." I stammered.

"I'm what?" she asked.

I took a minute to think on how to put this into something she would understand.

"I'm not an ordinary person," I said finally.

"What do you mean? You look like a normal person to me," she said.

"On the outside I look like an ordinary person, but I was born with a demon inside of me," I said.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"You really want to see?" I asked even though I was a bit worried on how she might react.

She nodded.

I knew she was eager to see.

"Alright," I said putting our bowls into the sink. "I'll only do a power up ok?"

"Ok," she said.

I breathed in slowly releasing the power and then allowing the power manipulate around me to show up as a fiery red glow around my body and having one tail.

"Well this the power I was telling you," I said still a bit worried.

"That looks so cool," she said.

I was somewhat relieved.

"How can you control the power that you have?" she asked me.

"I train every day to keep it under control," I said returning back to normal. "Come on, we should go back to town and meet up with the others, ok?

"Ok," she said.

"Get changed and we'll leave as soon as you are ready," I said to her.

This gave me some time to figure out what had happened last night.

Within a few minutes she was ready to leave.

"Come on," I said opening the door.

On our way out I used my aura sight to search for anybody ahead or nearby.

"The coast is clear for now," I said. "It may change once we get into the city."

"Can I ask you something?" I heard Josie say.

"Sure thing," I replied.

"How do you know it wasn't you who turned on the light?" she asked me.

"The demon that's inside of me would have told me if I ever sleep walk," I replied. "Come on. We should get going."

We walked out into the wilderness. As we did, I felt a slight tug at my leg.

I looked down at her. "You ok?" I asked.

"I'm scared of coming out here," she replied shyly.

"You can stay by my side until we get back to the city, ok?" I said.

"Ok," she replied.

"Come on," I said.

We walked through the forest that was between us and the city.

I felt her squeeze my hand a bit tighter.

"You all right?" I asked her.

"I'm scared," she replied.

"Here," I said bending down. "You can crawl onto my back and I'll carry you the rest of the way."

I waited for to crawl onto my back and stood up again.

"Ready?" I asked her.

"Ready," I heard her say shyly.

We ventured through the rest of the forest getting to know each other.

Once back in the city, I put her down on the ground and we walked to the house.

"Lets get back to the house~" I began.

"THERE HE IS!" someone called out.

I conjured up an Aura Sphere and launched it by their feet.

"Lets go," I said grabbing her and flash stepping.

We landed in a back alley right behind the house.

"In we go," I said opening the door.

"What was that?" I heard one of the kids say.

"Looks like I over did it again," I said coming up the stairs with Josie still in my arms.

"That was you?" another said.

"Yeah," I replied. "We got noticed unexpectedly, so I launched an Aura Sphere by their feet to slow them down a bit."

"For now, you should stay here for the day," Rachel said.

"Thanks," I replied. "You ok Josie?"

"I'm fine," she said, then fell back.

"Easy, easy," I said catching her.

"Is she ok?" someone asked.

"She's fine," I replied. "It happens to people who never been through a flash step. She need some rest for now."

"That's good," another said.

"We need to come up with a plan and fast," I said. "I'm a bit worried about my Chimchar."

"Right," Rachel said.

We started to make a plan about what we should do. Many hours of planning finally paid off when we came to agreement that I would go see my Chimchar that night while everyone is asleep.

By now it was late afternoon when we put our plan into action by sending out a couple of scout teams to survey the city for any hideouts.

By nightfall, they had found the hideout close to the PokeCenter. Another team had phoned Nurse Joy about the plan and would leave the back door unlocked for me.

By midnight, I used my ninja skills and went from rooftop to rooftop in complete darkness and stopping when necessary to check for any lookouts.

Finally I came to the PokeCenter, and just as Nurse Joy had said, the back door was unlocked. I made my way into the center and found Nurse Joy waiting in Medical Bay 3 for me.

"How's she doing?" I asked.

"She's stable for now," she replied.

"That's good," I said. "I got it from here.

She nodded and left.

I waited until the door closed before saying, "I'm sorry you have to go through this Lily. It'll be over soon. Just hang in there a little longer." I began to pet her trying to give her some comfort in all of this.

Eventually I pull up a chair and fall asleep next to her. Morning came when I woke up. She was still laying there in the same position as when I first arrived in the middle of the night.

She seemed so distant from the time she was born. I couldn't live with myself if she were to die this young in life.

Nurse Joy came in to check up on Lily and see if there were any improvements in her health. Luckily we got a break and her fever had finally broken. I was relieved to hear this and could relax at last without having to worry about Lily's condition.

"There he is," I whipped around and got into a defensive stance. "Get him."

"Barrier thirty-three," I said as a barrier formed a wall before me.

"You had no right of your Chimchar going before us," one said in anger.

"My Chimchar was extremely ill and on the verge of death. My medicine wouldn't be able to help fight off the infection that was in her body," I said.

"That gave you no right," he said.

"What if it were your Pokemon that was on the verge of death," I said as my anger began to rise.

Everyone went silent.

"Now do you see why my Chimchar was more urgent then most of yours," I said calming down a bit.

They had realized their mistake and started apologizing to me about what they had done. I gave them a lesson in getting the details first before acting.

Shortly after, I was left alone to look after Lily. She looked so young to die from a fever, but now that she was out of the neck of the woods, she has to recover and to regain her strength.

I still was upset that I didn't catch it sooner. If I had, I would have treated her properly.

Over time, some of the kids that helped me escape and go into hiding, came to visit me while I was in the PokeCenter.

"Thank you all for trying to cheer me up," I said to the group of kids.

After about a week of constant waiting for Nurse Joy to release Lily from the PokeCenter, most of the kids came to see me everyday hoping to cheer me up. Even some of the kids who came after me apologized to me many times over.

Finally, after several more days of waiting, Nurse Joy came and told me that she was healthy enough to leave the center.

I thanked everyone that helped me through this time and I decided to head back towards Twinleaf Town to give the professor some documents about the miracles of life.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

During the time that followed me leaving Sunyshore City, Lily had recovered. We were back to our original schedule of me getting up at night and sleep for parts of the day.

She had lost some weight during the time she was sick, but quickly gained all back over the months that followed her illness.

The journey back to Twinleaf Town would be long and excruciating.

Since leaving Sunyshore City, we had traveled to Celestic Town where I would meet up with a friend that needed to give me an important document from Prof. Oak.

"This is the envelope that he wanted to give me?" I asked Carlos.

"This is it," he replied.

"I thought it was a message about something," I said.

"Apparently not," he replied. "All I got was this fax from him the other day telling me to give this to you."

"Alright," I said opening the envelope.

I looked it over carefully.

"What does it say?" Carlos asked.

"It's something Prof. Rowan should look at," I said. "I think it might be something relating to me. But I'm not sure."

We walked out of his house and to the pond next to his house.

By now it was early evening and had planned on leaving early in the morning.

"Mind if I ask how you have a newborn Chimchar traveling with you?" Carlos asked.

"I was left with an egg after the mother had died several months ago," I replied. "We've traveled from Sunyshore City where Lily had recovered from being seriously ill."

"That's a bit harsh," he said.

"It was," I said. "After what we went through there, I think we should have been given a chance at the center."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

I explained what we went through and how we got out of it.

"That is pretty harsh if you had to go into hiding like that," he said after I had finished.

"It was," I replied. "I think those kids learned a valuable lesson after that."

"We should go in for dinner," he said after a moment of silence.

"It's about time I feed Lily anyways," I said turning around and heading towards the house.

We ate dinner and headed off to sleep.

During the night I couldn't help but wonder what why some of the kids helped me in hiding.

After an hour or so I had finally drifted off to sleep.

It was early morning when I awoke. Lily was crawling around and I was helping her learn to walk.

She had grown quite a bit in these last few months. She was able to stand on her own but wasn't able to walk on her own.

I finally finished packing and was about to head out the door when Carlos came out of his room.

"You're leaving already?" he asked.

"I am," I replied. "I got a long adventure ahead of me."

"This is good-bye then?" he said.

"Not necessarily," I said. "We'll see each other again someday."

"Till next time we meet," he said.

"Never forget who we are," I said.

"Never let the flame of friendship die," he said.

"Together as one," I said.

"We are bound by fate," he said.

"Bound by destiny," I said.

"And friends forever," he said.

"Till the very end," I said.

"No matter what," he said.

"We will be there for each other," I said.

"To the day we die," he said.

"True friendship can never be extinguished by water. The fire will live on forever," we said in unison.

"I should get going," I said after we had finished the chant.

"That document did look important," he said.

"Till we meet again, Carlos," I said leaving.

"Till we meet again, Tristain," he said as the door shut.

Lily was still asleep as we left the house.

From Celestic Town, we traveled west through Mt. Coronet. Upon entering, we were enshrouded by near darkness.

"As dark as it is, I might as well use the lantern I got in Celestic Town," I said aloud.

That's when Lily began to whimper.

"It's ok Lily," I said. "I won't let anything hurt you."

I lit the lantern and went into Mt Coronet.

It was rather dark inside.

I could hear Lily start to cry in my arms.

With limited amount of visibility, it was hard finding a place to take shelter for the time being. After several minutes of searching, we came across a good enough rock formation that could act as a shelter.

I pulled out some baby food for Lily and tried to feed her. She would refuse the food every time the spoon came close to her mouth.

'This isn't like her,' I thought. 'Maybe it's being in here that's causing her to act like this.'

I packed up the food and picked up the pace a bit so Lily wouldn't act this way.

It was a long journey through the mountain. By the time we came out, it was already early evening.

I put some distance between us and the mountain.

By night fall, I could see some lights not too far off in the distance.

"Let's see," I said. "We are on Route 211. Then that means we are near Eterna City."

I put away the map and we headed out towards Eterna City in search of a place to stay for the night.

Upon entering Eterna City, I saw a group of people gathering around something. Without being noticed, I did my best to get close enough to see what the object was. It appeared to be some sort of liquid based substance.

That's when Lily started to squirm in my arms.

'I better move and fast,' I thought.

I took the street was on and headed down it until I came to a vacant house.

'This will do,' I thought. 'Hopefully they didn't notice me while I was there.'

I slipped in quietly and waited for any other sounds before turning on some lights.

"Come on Lily," I said. "Let's get you something to eat."

Inside the house, I made a small fire and some dinner. Lily had gone from the baby formula to baby food.

Once Lily was fed and dinner was done with, I let her crawl around the place for a bit while I went to the kitchen and did the dishes.

'I wonder what that object was,' I thought to myself. 'It appeared to be a liquid. But what kind of liquid was it that gave off a faint glow? Maybe it was some experiment they were trying out. Until I get back to the professor, I have no clue.'

Finishing up the dishes, I went back into the living room to see that Lily had managed to pull out one of my Pokeballs and was rolling it around the floor. Upon seeing this, I couldn't help but chuckle thinking what the Pokemon on the inside must be feeling.

Picking Lily up, I released the Pokemon from its Pokeball. Buizel came out and was tipsy turny from being rolled around.

Buziel seemed wobbly for a while before he finally stopped and was able to walk straight.

"You ok, Buizel?" I asked him.

"Bui, Bui," he said with a nod.

"Come on. We should get some sleep," I said as Buziel came up to my shoulder.

Buizel had taken a liking to Lily and would play with her when we are traveling. They had become good friends and at times Lily would fall asleep next to him for naps.

Ever since Lily was able to crawl, Buizel would be playing with her and giving her some experience with other Pokemon. She had enjoyed his company and would play with his tails.

Looking around the house, I found a room that we could sleep in for the night. Setting down my pack, Lily crawled over to the bed sheets and used those to help her stand up. Buizel was on the window seal looking out at the night sky.

In the meantime while those two were messing around for a bit, I got ready for bed and watched them play. Lily eventually fell asleep on the ground and I put her to bed. Buizel fell asleep shortly after. I stayed awake for a little while longer before drifting off to sleep myself.

It was a dreamless sleep and when I awoke the following morning I found Buizel and Lily playing with each other.

I made breakfast and packed up my gear to look for Prof. Oak. He left me a message on where he was going to be and hopefully he was still there.

Upon leaving the house, Eterna City seemed like a peaceful town and seemed quiet in the morning. I asked around the town if anyone knew of Prof. Oak. A few people didn't know who he was and others pointed me to a house just on the edge of town.

Using what information I had gathered, I went to the house and to my surprise Prof. Oak was editing his house.

"Ah, you must be Tristain, correct?" he asked me.

"That's correct," I said.

"Did you received the document from Carlos?" he asked.

"I have it with me," I replied.

"Good, good," he said. "Make sure it gets to Prof. Rowan as soon as possible. It's very important."

"I'll make sure it gets to him," I said.

"Very good," he said. "And who's this that's with you?"

"This is Lily, my Chimchar," I replied.

While Prof. Oak is playing with Lily I tried to warn him.

"I don't think that's safe Prof. Oak," I said. "She's a bit..."

"Char," she said and unleashed a Flamethower into the professor's face.

He blinked a couple of times.

"I tried to warn you," I said taking her out of his hands.

"It's quite alright, Tristain," he said cleaning off his face with a hanker chief. "I get that a lot with fire type Pokemon."

"That's a relief," I said. "I should head off if I were to deliver the document to Prof. Rowan."

"Ok Tristain," he said. "Don't forget to give it to him."

"I won't," I said and turned to leave Eterna City.

"Hold on a sec will ya," he said.

I stopped and looked over my shoulder at him.

"When you get there," he said. "Tell him this 'Memory is the key', he knows what it means."

"Will do Prof. Oak," I said and left Eterna City.

"What a fine young man," I heard him say as I left.

Going through Route 206 was a bit hazardous since it was a bike route. I had to figure out to do with Lily when traveling through it. It came to mind to out Lily in my pack and ride carefully to Route 207.

After getting through Route 206, it was a clear shot to Oreburgh City where we stopped to get a few supplies and a little lunch.

We didn't stay long in Oreburgh City. Lily didn't really like the smell of the coal mines. It was only a brief visit to the Oreburgh Mining Museum to look at a few fossils.

With lunch done, we continued on our way through Oreburgh Gate and onto Route 203.

By early evening, managed to get to Jubilife City. Stopping outside of the city, I checked the map and saw that we were not that far from Twinleaf Town. With the document and message I needed to give to Prof. Rowan in Sandgem Town, I would go to Twinleaf Town to pay a visit to my parents.

We did a little site seeing then checked into a room at the nearby Poke Center.

Lily seemed eager to walk more while at the center. I let her walk around on her own for little while. She would walk between me and Buizel.

Nurse Joy knocked on the door and came in. I asked her if she could do a check up on Lily.

Buizel was the first by my side. I picked up Lily and set her on my lap for the checkup. Even though she's almost a year old, I thought it be best if she was healthy enough to go to Sandgem Town.

Before the check up started, Lily clung to me for comfort. I gave a pat on the head and told her that Nurse Joy wasn't going to hurt her. She seemed to settle down and Nurse Joy began the check up.

I gave Lily comfort throughout the check up so she wouldn't freak out. By the end of the check up she told me that Lily is as healthy as ever.

I thanked Nurse Joy as she left the room. I noticed something odd about Buizel. I didn't think much of it and thought it was just a change in the air.

I gave Lily and Buizel their dinner as Nurse Joy brought in my dinner. I watched the two play for a bit while I ate.

'Buizel does a bit off,' I thought. 'He doesn't seem like his usual self. Maybe it's the change in environment. For now I'll have to wait and see if he's reacting to something.'

After those two fell asleep, I couldn't help but wonder if Buizel would be ok. After about an hour of wonder about Buizel I finally fell asleep.

By the next morning, I noticed that Buizel didn't seem quite like himself at all. At first he didn't want to eat and I thought he was coming down with a cold or something.

When I tried to talk to him would either ignore me or brush me off as if I weren't there. I had Nurse Joy look at him, but it ended up with Buizel refusing treatment.

"Maybe he's just a bit stressed right now," Nurse Joy said.

"The thing is, he's never acted like this before," I said.

"Give him some time," she said. "He might come around once he's adjusted to his new surroundings."

"Thanks Nurse Joy," I said.

"You're welcome," she replied.

I returned the keys to her and headed for Sandgem Town.

By mid-day, we reached Sandgem Town. We went to Prof. Rowan's lab and gave him the document as well as the message.

The professor went back to work with whatever the document meant.

"The professor seems to know what he's doing," I said to one of the assistants.

"He does," said the assistant. "Whatever was on the document, he may know what it meant."

"Tristain," the professor said.

"Yes," I replied.

"How long has it been since you last visited your parents?" he asked.

"Quite a while," I said. "I was planning on heading over there once I dropped this of."

"Good," he said. "I'm sure they miss you."

"I'm sure they do miss me," I said.

"While I work on this, why don't you go and visit them for a while," he said. "I call you if something comes up."

"Understood," I said.

We departed and I headed out towards Twinleaf Town.

Fifteen minutes later, we reached Twinleaf Town. It had been a long time since I last was here. The memories of living here as a child came back to me. When thinking back in those memories, I wonder what happened to some of the kids who set off to be a trainer the same day as I did. Are they still in Sinnoh? Are they still training to beat the Elite Four after I had beaten them? Did they come back to visit their parents just as I did? It had been so long that I wouldn't know until I talk to the professor again.

I walked to the house that we lived in for so long. Standing in front of the door, I thought back to the last I was here. Me and a few friends playing a game of hide-and-seek by the edge of the forest. It had been too long.

I gave a knock and waited for someone to answer. A moment later the door opens. Standing before me is my mother and my father was sitting on the couch.

My mom looked quite surprised to see me standing at the door.

"Tri~ Tristain," she said in a surprised tone. She let me in and my father was also surprised to see me. "I'll go make us some lunch and you can tell us all about your adventures.

I got settled in and my mother went into the kitchen and made some lunch for us.

I told them about my adventures and what I was currently doing. I even told them about the situations I came across and how I overcame them. By the time I came to the present days, we had eaten our lunch and it was early evening.

My parents were quite thrilled to here all of my stories and how I overcame them. The only story I didn't share was the story of Valencia and how she died. I didn't want them to know what happened. I had to lie about what had happened to Valencia.

During the time I was telling my stories, Lily was crawling around the floor and Buizel was looking out the window seal. I tried my best not to worry too much about what was happening with him while we were with my parents.

My mother took the tray and went into the kitchen. My father went upstairs to get something for me. I went over to Buizel and tried to talk to him again. He didn't seem to want to look at me when I was talking to him. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.

'He was fine a few days ago,' I thought to myself. 'Why is he acting like this? He's never acted like this before.'

My parents came back into the living room. They had a surprise for me and told to visit a few friends for a little while and catch up with them.

As I walked over to a friend's house, I stopped a ball from rolling away. I looked over to see a few kids playing. I smiled at them and kicked the ball back in their direction.

They looked at me for a moment then went back to playing ball again. Just as I was about to continue on, it rolled over in my direction again.

I couldn't help but chuckle a bit as I kicked the ball back in the direction it came from.

The kids seemed to be talking about something when they came over.

"Excuse me, mister," one of them said. "Are you Tristain."

"I am," I replied.

I heard some exclaims as they were amazed to see me.

"Our parents have been telling us stories that there was a man by the name of Tristain who beat the Elite Four," another said.

"I did beat the Elite Four a few years back," I said.

For a little while they were asking me what it was like in the Elite Four and how I came to beat them. With every question they had, I had an answer to follow it.

After about twenty minutes, my mother came out to get me. I told the kids I'd tell them more tomorrow about my adventures from the day I left to beating the Elite Four.

Once at home, my parents had set up a small party for me. I couldn't help but think that they set this up in such a short amount of time. There were a few guest that came over for the party. I was asked many questions about my adventures and how I beat the Elite Four.

By the end of the party, the guests left and I got ready for bed. Lily and Buizel were already upstairs with Buizel by the window again, Lily curled up on the bed asleep already. I crawled in to bed and went to sleep with Lily by my side.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"What did the document offer in your research?" I asked Prof. Rowan.

"The document did shed some light on my research, but it did concern you as well," he said.

"I was afraid of that," I said.

"How so?" he asked.

"When I first looked it over, I thought that it might have something to do with me but I wasn't too sure," I said. "I thought you would know more about the document and finding out what it meant."

"I see," he said. "I want you to go to the library in Canalave City and do a little research for me."

He gave me a list of items he wanted to be researched. I looked it over a few times and gave him a nod showing that I knew what he wanted done.

I headed back towards Twinleaf Town where I would pack up some belongings and head towards Canalave City.

Walking through Route 201, I thought back to when I came home over a month ago. Lily was starting to speak the Human language by hearing my parents talk, have guests over, and the occasion of me sleep talking. Lily is now a little over a year old and can walk but can't speak all that well.

"Mom! Dad! I'm home," I said entering the house.

"Hi Tristain," I heard my mom say.

"Where's Dad?" I ask.

"He went to the Pal Park to watch 'The Catching Show'," she said.

"How long ago did he leave?" I asked.

"About fifteen minutes ago," she replied.

"Well, when he gets home tell him I said bye," I said.

"You're leaving already?" my mom asked.

"Not for too long," I said. "Only for a couple of days. Prof. Rowan wants me to research a few items at the Canalave City library."

"Have fun," I heard my mother say as I went upstairs.

I packed up some supplies that I would need for the next few days. By the time my supplies were packed, I looked around for Buizel. Eventually I found him on the living room window.

"Hey, you ok?" I asked him.

"Bui," he said sadly.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

I couldn't help but think that Buizel was feeling sad and yet lonely

"You want a mate, right?" I asked him.

"Bui," he said nodding sadly.

"I'll help you find one, ok?" I said trying to cheer him up.

"Bui," he said looking a little happier.

"Come on," I said picking him up. "The professor wants me to do a little research for him."

We headed out the door and towards Canalave City. Leaving Lily behind with my parents won't be that bad, would it? Probably not. If anything went wrong I would come home as soon as possible.

'I think that's all he's been wanting this last month and a half. All he wanted a mate, but at this young of age? Why now? Is he close to evolving? Or is that time of year when Buizel's mate? The only way to find out is to catch a female Buizel,' I thought to myself.

Heading through Route 201, we headed for Sandgem Town to inform the professor that we were heading to Canalave City.

Upon entering Route 202, I noticed a trainer up ahead. As we came closer, Buizel jumped off of my shoulder and ran ahead. I followed close behind him.

'Something isn't right,' I thought to myself.

When I caught up with Buizel I noticed a kid slumped up on a tree.

Kneeling down, I place a hand on his shoulder and gave a slight shake.

"Hey, kid, are you ok?" I asked not too sure whether or not he was sleeping.

I gave another slight shake. This time he started moaning a bit.

"Wha~ what happened?" he said.

"You tell me," I said. "I found you passed out."

"Ugh, my head hurts," he said trying to stand up. As he did he stumbled a bit.

"Easy," I said catching him. I helped him over to the tree again and had him sit down. "Can you tell me what you remember?"

I gave him some water to help reduce his headache. After that he did explain on what he remembered before he passed out.

"I see," I said. "The best I can do for you is give you some aspirin and a little water. I can take you as far as the next town where you should find a doctor."

"Thanks," he said still a bit weak.

I helped him to his feet and took him to the next town. From there, we parted ways and I headed west towards Route 218.

Upon entering Route 218, it happened to be a water route. Looking around for a place to change into a bathing suit, I found some bushes nearby. I brought out my Buizel and had him use Surf across the water with me holding onto his shoulders.

Nearing the other end of the route, I had Buizel stop. We could tell that there were some people picnicking by the edge of the route. Buizel looked over his shoulder at me and I had him dive so that we could go unnoticed to get to a place where I could change.

Coming to a place where some of the other trainers wouldn't notice me at all. I dried of Buizel and returned him to his Pokeball, dried myself off, and quickly changed back into my everyday clothing.

Around this time of day people would be picnicking here, so I decided to sneak through the bushes until I came to the entrance of the city. A few people glanced over at me for a moment and then went back to what they were doing.

Canalave City is a peaceful, quiet little city and it seems like nothing really happens here. From what I could tell, the people living here seemed happy the way they are living.

Even though I never really visited Canalave City much, I headed towards the library to find the information needed for the research.

Upon entering the library, I started looking for some books that may aid me in my research. Some of the books had little or no information at all.

Many hours of research and very little information was found. I looked on various shelves as well as the other two floors of the library.

"Excuse me, sir," said one of the librarians. "We're going to be closing soon."

"Ok, thank you," I said gathering up my notes.

What little research I found only covered some of the topics the professor wanted me to find.

'It's about time I looked for a place to stay for the night,' I thought to myself.

Some of the towns' folks pointed me in the direction of a house that's rarely ever used. I thanked them and headed over towards the house.

I released Buizel from his Pokeball and let him roam around while I prepared dinner.

Buziel seemed more of himself since we left Twinleaf Town, yet I promised him I would help him find a mate.

We finished up dinner and sat down to watch a little TV before we head off to bed.

Buizel cuddled up on my lap like he always did when we watched TV. I looked down at the TV guide that I found on the table to show what the channels were. Skimming through it, I found a movie channel and turned to it.

It happened to be a family friendly movie that played. We watched it for some time, while I went through my notes.

By the time the movie was over, Buizel had fallen asleep, and I finished reviewing my notes.

"Come on there, big guy," I said picking him up from my lap.

'He seemed to have stopped looking out the window and paid more attention to what was going on around him. Still he's not completely back to normal but he has made a big improvement since we left earlier today,' I thought.

I set him down on the bed while I went to go get ready.

By the time I came back, I found him curled up at the foot of the bed. I gave him a pat on the head and went to bed.

The next morning came and surprisingly enough, he managed to sleep through the night without waking up.

I got ready and headed back to the library to do some more research and try to finish up some more of the topics.

By closing time of the second day, I managed to finish up the remaining few topics and headed back towards the house.

Once back at the house, Buizel seemed to want to watch TV. I turned it on for him while I looked over the notes a few times.

Buizel seemed interested in what was on TV. I put down my notes to see what he is watching. Yet what appeared on TV seemed to be one of the other professors from another region.

"Reporting live from the Johto Region with another special about the 'Many Wonders of Pokemon'," said the reporter. "Standing here with us is Prof. Oak with another one of his findings. Professor, if you could please explain."

"Quite certainly," he said. "What I have found in my research of Pokemon eggs, it seems that some of the Pokemon, through many trials, will eventually learn an attack given to the young one from either parent. Attacks vary from Pokemon to Pokemon, it all depends on the attack that is being learned to the young one."

"Thank you, professor," said the reporter.

"You're welcome," said the professor.

"Tune in next time to hear more from Prof. Oak and his amazing discoveries about Pokemon life. Reporting to you live from the Johto Region, this is Abigail signing off." said the reporter.

As the show ended, I jotted down the last bits of notes that would help me later on when it came to life of Pokemon.

I made dinner and looked over the notes one last time before embarking on the long trek back the next morning.

As we finished up dinner I put away my notes and got ready for bed. Buizel had fallen asleep already and I carried him up to bed.

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast. I got all my belongings together, looked over the notes one final time, and left for the trip back to Twinleaf Town.

About mid-morning we headed for Route 218 where we found a place to hide so I could change into a bathing suit and had Buizel use Surf across the water towards the other side of the route.

Upon coming to the other side of the route, we had a break and no one was on the land. I quickly changed in some bushes and headed towards Jubilife City where we would make a quick pit stop for supplies at the Pokemart.

Buying only a few Max Repels, we were back on our way. Going south of the mart, we entered Route 202 proceeding towards Sandgem Town.

Entering Sandgem Town I headed towards the professor's' office to give him the findings that he needed.

"Prof. Rowan, I'm back," I said entering his research lab.

"So you are," he said. "Did you get the information I need?"

"It's all right here," I said handing him the papers.

"Very well," he said. "I'll call you if anything else comes up. Until then, stay with your parents."

"Right," I said.

Leaving his lab, I headed through Route 201 towards Twinleaf Town where I had an unexpected guest.

Upon entering my own home, the same kid I helped was standing in my kitchen.

"Oh, Tristain, your home early," my mom said.

"Hi mom," I replied. "I remember you. You were the guy that was by the tree the other day."

"That's right," he said. "The names Anton. You must be Tristain, am I correct?"

"That's right," I said calmly.

"Your mom has been telling me a lot about you and your travels around Sinnoh," he said.

"Really now," I said. "Did she tell you about what happened while I was at the Elite Four?"

"She was about to tell me that when you came in," he said.

"Ok," I said, "Where's dad and Lily?"

"Upstairs putting Lily to bed," she said.

"Thanks," I said. "I'll be upstairs if you need me."

"Who's Lily?" asked Anton.

"My Chimchar," I replied.

I went upstairs to see dad and Lily.

"How is she?" I asked entering my room.

"She's doing fine," he replied. "Fell asleep while your mom was telling Anton stories about your travels."

"Thought that might happen," I said. "How was the Safari Games?"

"Same old, same old," he replied.

"Nothing new then," I said.

I brought Buizel out from his Poke ball. And allowed him to roam around my room a bit.

In the meantime, I unpacked my bag and organized my belongings into their proper places.

Once everything was organized, Buizel hopped onto my shoulder and we headed downstairs to listen to some of the stories.

By the day's end, Anton and I had become good friends.

"I should get going," he said.

"Where to?" I said.

"Home," he said. "My parents are waiting for me."

"At this time of night?" my mom asked.

"You can spend the night here and leave first thing in the morning," I said. "Trust me, the woods at night aren't the best place to be for a kid your age, especially on a full moon."

"I'm guessing some sort of legend?" he asked.

"Yep," I replied.

"I guess every region has its own legend in each town," he said. "Would it be alright if I used your phone?"

"Go right ahead," my dad said.

He called up his parents and told them that he was spending the night at my house.

We headed upstairs and got ready for bed.

"I forgot to ask this earlier, but which town are you from?" I asked him.

"Originally from Pallet Town," he replied. "But I'm currently staying at a house in Route 224."

"What are you doing on the other side of Sinnoh them?" I asked him.

"Sight-seeing," he said.

'Something isn't right,' I thought to myself. 'Why would he be on this side of Sinnoh? It takes about a month to travel that far on foot. Unless he ran away from home.'

"Is something the matter?" he asked me.

"What? No. I was just thinking, that's all," I replied. "Let's get some sleep for now."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

"You got everything Anton?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he replied.

"If you forgot something along the way, don't hesitate to call," I said.

"Thanks," he replied. "I'll be sure to do that."

He turned towards the door and left.

Shortly after he left, the phone rang and I went to go answer it.

"Hello?" I asked.

"I see you're up already," Prof. Rowan said.

"I am," I replied. "I was seeing Anton off back to his parents' house."

"Right," he said. "I need you to bring Lily and Buizel over today."

"How come?" I asked.

"I want to check their health and to see if they are doing well," he said.

"Right, once they are up and fed, I'll bring them over shortly thereafter," I said.

"Good," he said. "I'll be seeing you shortly."

"See you soon professor," I said.

The call ended and I thought this would be a good opportunity for Lily to meet Prof. Rowan as well as seeing a new place.

I went back upstairs to get Lily and Buizel so we could head over to Prof. Rowan. Upon entering the room, Buizel seemed to be asleep still and Lily is already up. I watched as Lily grabbed and pulled Buizel's tails. Buizel jumped into the air and grabbed onto the ceiling light above him. Lily seemed to like it and I couldn't help but laugh at Buizel.

"Come on down from their Buizel," I said chuckling a bit.

I went over and helped him down from the light.

Buizel seemed to still be shaken up when we downstairs to get some breakfast. In the end, Buizel finally settled down and ate his breakfast. During that time I told them that Prof. Rowan wanted to see them for a few minutes.

Once we finished our breakfast, we headed for the research lab in Sandgem Town. I decided to let Buizel stay out of his Poké Ball so he could see the forest around Twinleaf Town.

Upon entering Sandgem Town, Lily seemed to be anxious about the new place she is in. Buizel and I, on the other hand, noticed she wanted to look around and discover new places.

"We'll have time to explore later," I said.

We headed into the research lab where the professor had some equipment setup.

By the time we got to the research lab, it was already mid-morning.

"Tristain, you're right on time," said the professor. "Let's get started shall we?"

Lily clung to me and didn't want to leave.

"Buizel can go first," I said. "Lily's kind of scared right now."

Buizel looked over at me nervously.

"It's all right, I'll be right here during the exam," I said trying to comfort Buizel.

Buizel hoped onto the machine and one of Prof. Rowan's assistance checked over Buizel's weight, height, body size, heart rate, as well as his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

"Buizel seems to be in tip top shape," said the assistant. "All we have to do is check his endurance and he should be all set."

They put Buizel onto a treadmill and put a device onto his head to monitor his brain waves as well as monitor his heart rate.

With Buizel on the treadmill and the assistant at the computer, she started up the machine. Buizel started jogging at the preset pace the assistant had put in.

With Lily in one arm, she watched as Buizel jogged at an even pace. Lily seemed nervous when she would be examined, yet I would be right there.

During the final part of the test, Buizel seemed to be getting tired. The assistant saw that he is tiring out. She waited for a few more minutes to allow him to tucker out completely, then she shut down the machine.

I knew Buizel would reach his limits at some point but I didn't think it would take this long.

"15 minutes 22 seconds," said the assistant.

"I didn't think he would last that long," I replied.

"Your Buizel seems to have a good enough endurance," said the assistant. "It's time to get your Chimchar checked."

Lily clung to me.

"It's alright," I said. "I'll be right here."

I know she's scared, but reluctantly enough she let go of me and I handed her over to the assistant.

They did the same exam as before. Measuring her height, body size, heart rate, as well as checking her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

"Lily seems to be in good health," said the assistant handing her back to me.

This gave enough time for Buizel to catch his breath.

"Tristain, there's one more test I want to run," said the professor.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I want to make sure you are in good health before heading out on this adventure, said Prof. Rowan.

"Ok," I said.

I put down Lily and shortly after Buizel came over to her.

"Take off your shirt please," said the assistant.

I took off my shirt for the exam.

The assistant gave me the same checkup. She measured my height, body size, heart rate, muscle mass, as well as my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

I knew they wanted to make sure I would be in good condition. Even with the exam, I knew I was in good health.

"That's all for now," said the assistant.

"No jogging?" I asked putting on my shirt.

"Not this time," said the professor.

"Everything else is in good condition," said the assistant.

"Right," I said.

Buizel hopped onto my shoulder as I picked up Lily.

"We'll be at the house if you need anything professor," I said.

"Right," he said.

Once we were done, it happened to be mid-day and time for lunch.

We left the lab and headed back towards the house. Lily seemed back to her normal self and Buizel had regained his strength.

Even though we had different results from the last time we had the exam, it still seemed we improved.

Getting back Twinleaf Town, a few of the kids were playing soccer.

"Look out!"

With only a few seconds to spare, I jumped to one side as the ball went flying by.

Lily began to cry and Buizel jumped off of my shoulder and into a fighting stance.

"Sorry about that," one of the kids said.

"Easy boy," I said to Buizel.

I had Lily in my arms and Buizel began to relax.

Having to calm Lily just enough to talk with the children nearby, I knew this would happen with her.

"You alright?" another kid asked.

"I'm fine," I said. "You kids playing soccer again?"

"Yeah we are," said a third kid.

"Where did the ball even land?" I asked looking back to where the ball had gone.

From where the route began, I couldn't really see the ball.

"It might've gone into the bushes again," said a fourth kid.

"Come on, we'll help you kids look for the ball," I said. "Let's go Buizel."

We walked over to some of the bushes that were by the entrance to the route. Setting Lily down, I knew she could use some time to walk around.

Some of the kids looked around one area of the place, while the rest of the kids looked in another area, and me and Buizel took up a third area.

The combined search progressed well and shortened the time greatly. Eventually one of the kids found the soccer ball and continued the game.

I couldn't help but smile as they continued to play. Breaking my gaze from the children, I began to look around for Lily. She seemed to be enjoying messing around with some of the fall leaves and being able to throw the leaves around her.

"Let's go home, Lily," I said walking over to her and picking her up.

She began to squirm in my arms wanting to throw more leaves in the air.

"It's alright Lily," I said to her. "We'll come back in a little bit to play, alright?"

She didn't want to go but I knew we would be back.

Before heading back to the house, I looked around at the trees as the leaves began to change colors from the regular green, to different shades of yellows, oranges, and reds. Fall would be coming soon, yet it seemed so peaceful. The children would be starting up school soon and having some time to take Lily around town to let her mess around in the leaves. She seemed to enjoy messing with the leaves.

Turning to the house, I noticed something odd about one of the trees that I've never seen before. I walked towards the tree to get a better look at it.

Approaching the tree, it began to shake. Buizel jumped forward and got into his battle stance.

'Be ready to attack,' I said telepathically to Buizel. I didn't know what to expect.

That's when the tree turned around and saw us. I realized it wasn't a tree but a Sudowoodo instead.

"Sudowoodo," it said saluting.

Just before I had Buizel back down, Sudowoodo charged us and we both jumped out of the way as it went past us. Following it, I saw it enter the route, and then disappear into some bushes.

Looking around, I saw a few other people looking as shocked as I was at the incident. I could hear them talking amongst them about what had happened and wanting to know why a Sudowoodo would be this far from its natural habitat.

"Bui," I heard Buizel say.

Looking down at him, he seemed kind of startled at what had happened. Lily, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice much. I figured she would be looking at the leaves then looking at the Sudowoodo.

I decided to go over to ask the other people to see if any other Sudowoodo's have appeared here before.

"What was that about?" I asked the elders hoping to get some idea what the Sudowoodo was doing here.

"We're as puzzled as you are," said one of the elders.

"That's never happened before," said the second elder.

"We've never seen one this far from its habitat before," said the third elder.

I jotted down the notes as they told me what they had thought about the Sudowoodo being here in Twinleaf Town. From what I gathered from the elders, I managed to piece together that this wasn't a natural thing and documented the incident to give to Prof. Rowan.

I put my notes away and bid farewell to the elders.

Being a small town, Twinleaf was one of those towns that everyone knew everyone.

Buizel lead the way home.

Entering the house, I called out to see if either of my parents were home. Surprisingly enough, they weren't. My first thought was that they had gone out shopping and would return home soon.

Setting my belongings in my room, I took a shower and got changed.

'It's been awhile since Buizel and Lily had a bath' I thought. 'They could use one.'

Looking around for Buizel, I found him downstairs playing with Lily.

"Come on you two," I said picking them up. "It's been awhile since I've given each of you a bath."

Both of them looked at me, then at each other.

Taking them upstairs, I ran the bath water and gave Buizel the first bath.

He seemed to enjoy the warm water. I let him play in it before washing him. He seemed to enjoy the bath and Lily started to mess with the toilet paper.

Rinsing my hands in the bath water, I stopped Lily for unraveling the entire roll and told her nicely to not do it again. I began to ravel up the toilet paper and finished washing Buizel.

Taking him out of the bath, I dried him off. Removing the towel, his fur puffed out. I couldn't help but laugh at him. In the end, I patted down his fur so he wouldn't become too upset about it.

Getting Lily ready for the bath wasn't easy. Since she is a fire type, she isn't too fond of water. I ended up draining the water from the bath and used the removable shower head to wash Lily. That seemed to calm her down enough for me to wash her. Whenever I brought the shower head close enough, she would reach out and grab the sides of it, letting her mess with it for a while, and then continued to wash her.

Having finished up washing Lily, I took her out of the bath and dried her off, then put a new diaper on her.

With her second birthday coming up within a few days, I never really put some thought into it. I took them downstairs and began to jot down some ideas for a small party.

Just then my parents walked in the door.

"I'm guessing you and dad went to the store?" I asked.

"We were running low on some supplies for the adoption center," my mom replied.

"What are you working on?" my dad asked.

I explained what I had in mind for Lily's birthday, while she and Buizel were off in the living room playing.

By the time we were done planning everything out, both Buizel and Lily had their fair share of food. Lily seemed tired and Buizel settled down to take a nap in the window. I picked Lily up and let her fall asleep in my arms. Once she fell asleep, I took her upstairs and put her on my bed. She seemed much happier than she did some time ago, yet I couldn't figure why. Even if I didn't know the answer, I'm glad she's here.

Afternoon turned into evening, evening turned into night, we had the party planned out and ready for when the day comes.

Eventually we had dinner with Lily sitting on my lap and Buizel sitting close by. They seemed to enjoy each other's company, yet I couldn't help but think that Buizel got most of his carefulness from me when I took care of him.

I thought back to when I saved him from that storm shortly before embarking on my adventure. Back then he was weak and disoriented and couldn't really find his way off the beach. He kept being pushed back into the ocean.

'If I hadn't been out that day,' I thought, 'I would have never found him.'

"Something wrong?" my dad said.

"Wha~ no," I replied. "Nothing's wrong."

We finished our dinner in silence as Lily and Buizel finished up their dinner.

Taking Buizel and Lily upstairs, I got them ready for bed and settled down myself for the night.

The next few days went by like a blur, getting ready for the party and having to travel between Twinleaf Town and Sandgem Town.

Having the party all set up and inviting some of the towns' children over, as well as having a few of the town's elders over.

Some of the children would play with Buizel and Lily and others would be around me listening to the countless stories I had of my adventures.

Having the towns' children going to school in the morning, they seemed to want to know what it is like to be a trainer. A few of the children wanted to become like me and others wanting to become a Pokemon breeder.

Slowly, the guests began to leave. Lily and Buizel were both tired from playing with the kids and having been picked up multiple times each by different kids or by the same kid.

I got them ready for bed and came back downstairs to help clean up some of the food.

By the time we finished, I went upstairs and went to bed.

'I knew they had a good time tonight with all the kids coming over for the party,' I thought to myself as I fell asleep.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

As the days turned into weeks, weeks turning into months, months into years, fall in winter, winter into spring, spring into summer, I kept in contact with the mother of the child that I had found back at the Pokemart. She seems to have taking a liking to me over these past few years.

I did visit the family from time to time, trying to keep up with how things have changed over the course of time.

With the assignments the professor has been giving me, I worked on compiling the notes he needed within the surrounding areas. A few times I had to go out to the Safari Zone to spectate some of the games that went on and how humans interact with Pokemon.

Lily had grown up and Buizel had evolved into a Floatzel. I did help him find a mate in the years that we spent together. Shortly after he got a mate, he seemed to spend a lot of time with her. I took it as a sign that they were bonding together, so I let them be for the time being.

I've been helping around the house as well as helping the professor with his work. He's been sending me out to Canalave City more and more frequently.

"Tristain," said the professor. "I want you to pack up your belongings and meet me back here tomorrow."

"What for?" I asked.

"I'm sending you out on another journey," he said. "I want you to collect more data on Pokemon and their different breeding habits as well as any behavioral changes."

"How long of a journey are we talking about?" I asked him.

"However long it takes to collect all the information needed," he said.

"Understood," I said.

Upon returning to the house, I explained the situation to my parents and started on my packing. Eventually they agreed to let me travel the region once again. Even though I am one of the professor's assistants, I still try to take time off work to visit with my family.

I returned the pair of Floatzel's to their Poke Balls. Grabbing Lily, I said goodbye to my parents and left for another journey. I didn't know how long this one would be, so I decided to stock up as I went from town to town.

With Lily being close to six years of age, her grammar had become better. She still had a lot to learn along the way, yet I didn't mind spending all those hours teaching her the human language. To this day, I still can't figure out why she started speaking the human language all those years ago. Even the professor was astonished when I told him. He called the other professors from the other regions and got back to me once he found out more about it. It seems that my Chimchar should have learned her own language, but with Lily being a monkey, she learned English instead.

Looking back once more at the town, the leaves turning different colors as summer ended and fall began. I couldn't help but let Lily mess in the leaves once more before we left. The children, well, I couldn't call them children anymore, they're more like teens now, came out to greet me goodbye.

"Come on Lily," I called as the last of the teens left. "It's time to go."

"Do we have to?" she asked saddened.

"Yes we do," I replied.

She walked over to me. "I'm really gonna miss this place."

"Don't worry," I said picking her up. "We'll come back to visit one day."

She then gave me a hug.

"Let's go," I said rubbing her back.

Taking the fifteen minute walk through Route 201, I looked around at the trees as each tree had its leaves turn a different color for fall.

The walk did help Lily calm down a bit but she still didn't want to leave home.

"I know you don't want to leave," I said to her, "but the nice professor has a special job for me to do."

She looked at me.

"We'll come back and visit, ok?" I said to her.

"Ok," she said sounding sad.

Over the past few years of research that professor had assigned me, I have been compiling my own notes on the behavior changes as Lily grew up and any behavioral changes that the two Floatzel's had over time.

Of course, I never told the professor this, I thought it was best to keep it a secret until it was time to leave for another research journey.

Entering the research lab, the professor and one of his assistants gave me a brief overview of what they wanted me research.

Not really knowing what to look for, I thought it best to look for the signs that Pokemon gave when doing certain actions in their everyday life.

I thought it would be best to keep my little side project a secret until I returned to Sandgem Town.

I made a few notes of what to bring and left for Twinleaf Town.

Gathering up the last of the material at home, I said goodbye to my parents and start the next long journey for research.

Lily walked beside and the two Floatzel's were in their Poke Balls.

Heading through Sandgem Town for the last time before embarking on the journey.

Looking around the town, the trees had the different colors of leaves as fall rapidly approached. Lily, on the other hand, looked around at the children that were playing before school started.

Picking up Lily, we headed out to start our adventure.

Our first stop: Jubilife City.

Heading North on Route 202, we headed towards Jubilife City.

Seeing the vast city once again, with all the different stores and buildings, I never really had any interest in moving to a city.

Stopping at the local Poke Mart, I stocked up on a few supplies that I would need to bring along the way.

Leaving Jubilife City and heading north though Route 204 towards Floaroma Town, I jotted down some notes of the wildlife through the route.

My first intention was to get to the Old Chateau House in Eterna Forest.

Spending most of the morning recording some data the professor needed, I found some distinct patterns certain Pokemon made or markings on trees that other Pokemon made.

Seeing as Lily wondered around the area, I tried to keep her close by, as to not disturb the Pokemon. She did seem to be curious as to what was here. Keeping an eye on her, I finished up what I was doing and headed out.

The trees starting to turn different colors as we went continued through the route.

"Where are going?" Lily asked.

"To Floaroma Town," I replied.

"Where's that?" she asked.

"At the other end of the route," I replied.

"How long will that take?" she asked.

"Not long," I replied smiling at her.

"Can you carry me?" she asked.

"Sure thing," I said picking her up. "You ok?"

"My feet hurt," she replied.

"Alright," I said. "I'll carry you, ok?"

"Ok," she said.

Lily looked around the area as we continued through the route.

I knew the next town was only a minute or two further up the route.

Looking over at Lily, as she seemed to be gazing at the different colors of the leaves, she still seemed curious of the fall season and all the colors it to offer. I couldn't help but look around as we entered Floaroma Town.

The town smelled of sweet scent of flowers, and grew in small gardens in different areas of the town. With the town being small, it looked peaceful and quiet; I couldn't pass up the offer to have lunch in the town.

Thinking back to when I was a kid, I remember coming here with friends during the summer, with the trip taking no more than an hour to reach. We would spend hours looking at the flowers or spend the day hanging out with each other and have a good time not having to worry about school.

Returning to reality, I released the two Floatzel's from their Poke balls, and got lunch going.

As lunch was under way, I jotted down some notes on my two Floatzel's. I thought it would be best to have some notes on the relationships of water type Pokemon on how they reacted to different environments.

Lily didn't go far from me, she wanted to sniff some of the flowers and even picked a few of them and brought them over to me. Eventually, she slowly made her way to the male Floatzel. I knew that the two had a special bond, but the other Floatzel, I was kind of worried about. I did notice that she didn't like it when Lily wanted to hang out with them. I had several talks with her about the bond between the two, she could never really appreciate the bond the two shared.

Without any noticing, I checked the female Floatzel's aura. I could tell that she is angry on the inside but happy on the outside.

I took note of what I saw.

Seeing the behavior of how she truly felt led me to believe that she didn't like the affection he was displaying towards the Chimchar. I couldn't really tell if it was anger towards children or anger towards her.

Keeping a close eye on them, I wanted to make sure she didn't do anything harsh to the Chimchar.

Watching the Floatzel, as he put Lily back on the ground, I smiled as Lily walked around.

Looking down at the food, I checked to make sure it was finished. That's when I heard a roar and Lily screaming.

Looking up I saw the female Floatzel attacking her with the male Floatzel trying to stop her.

Getting up, I brought my aura around my right hand and quickly flash stepped towards the female Floatzel as I put both hands in front of me forcing her back.

"GET OFF OF HER!" I boomed sending the female Floatzel back some several yards before hitting the ground.

Flash stepping towards her, I put my knee on her chest and my right hand on her neck, I said, "If you touch her again, you're dead, understand?"

She looked at me in horror and nodded.

Releasing my grip on her neck, I flash stepped over to the other Floatzel and Lily.

"Is she all right?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Let me see her," I said walking towards him.

He took a couple of steps back in fear.

Taking Lily from his arms, I brought her close to me .

"I can take it from here," I said.

Turning back to the picnic area and set her down. She had calmed down enough to where I could look her over and see if she had any serious wounds.

Not finding any life threatening wounds, I patched her up. Some of the wounds, though, were deep enough to where I had to close them up using a healing power that I had in case wounds that would take months to heal.

The female Floatzel was shaken when I came over to talk to her.

I knew my Floatzel did the right thing and tried to stop her.

"What you did was unforgivable," I said. "I've told you multiple times about this and you never listened to me. If you do this again, the consequences will be much more severe."

My Floatzel was still in shock when I turned to leave; the female Floatzel feared me after what I had done to her.

Going back to where I had out Lily, I checked on her again to see if I had missed anything. She still was frightened from the attack earlier.

Finishing up the last bit of preparations, I dished out lunch and had the female Floatzel sit at a distance from Lily. I gave my Floatzel the option to sit with me or her, he thought about it for a moment then sat down next to me.

"Look," I said, "I'm not trying to ruin the relationship between you two, I'm just trying to put her back in her place and make her realize the mistake she had made. I'm not making you sit with me, I did give you the option to sit with her and if you want to you can at any time. I'm not stopping you."

He looked up at me, then down at his food for a minute trying to decide whether or not to sit with me or with his mate.

"No need to feel rushed," I said not really looking over at him.

Lily had cuddled up in my lap still frightened from what had happened.

Eventually, he did get up and walked over to his mate and sat down next to her.

Watching the two for a moment, I made sure neither of them knew that I was keeping a close eye on them.

Taking a mental note of this, I would later right it down once I started taking notes again.

Hearing the soft breeze from the wind and the occasional whimper from Lily, we sat in silence. The smell of fresh flower scented the air as we finished lunch and started to pack things up.

Leaving the two Floatzel's out of their Poke Balls, we continued on our journey, both of them kept their distance from me, while I kept Lily close to me.

Heading east towards the entrance of Route 205, we started up our journey again. Heading North across the bridge that lead to Eterna Forest, I took a few notes as there was nothing really to jot down. I did jot down the incident from earlier on my personal notes.

Looking over my shoulder, both the Floatzel's were far behind me.

"Stop being such Slowpokes," I called out.

They looked up at me and picked up the pace, but not by much. I knew they were keeping their distance from me. At the rate we were going, we would reach the Old Chateau House by night fall.

Jotting down a quick note, I started walking again. The route was no different from the previous routes; the trees changing colors and the smell of the nearby flowers made the route your average route.

Taking notes of the different Pokemon and how they interacted with each other and how each of the Pokemon worked together as fall was soon going to become winter.

Having gotten to the entrance of Eterna Forest by night fall, I returned both Floatzel's to their Poke balls. Not wanting them to become lost in the vast forest, it was best for all of us in case we were to be ambushed.

Seeing as Lily clung to me as I entered the forest, I knew she was scared. Doing my best to comfort her, I looked up at the sky seeing the colors changed from a golden color to violet and looking back to see a dark blue color.

Feeling Lily cling to me, I looked down at her, then to the entrance of the forest.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"I'm going to return you to your Poke Ball," I said to Lily as I pulled out the ball.

"Ok," she said.

Pressing the button on the capsule, I returned Lily to the ball and placed the ball on my belt.

Looking up, I entered the forest.

Slowly making my way through the dark forest, I took whatever notes I could take. Seeing as it was hard to make my through the forest, even with a flash light, the amount of activityat night was different than the activity during the day.

Listening to the noises from the nocturnal Pokemon, I started to take some mental notes from the different noises.

Not really coming across any Pokemon, I made my way towards the old run down mansion that I've been hearing lately. Not knowing much about it, I thought it would be best to check it out at night.

Stopping every now and then to see where I was at, I managed to find the mansion. Only hearing rumors, legends and myths, about it and what it contained, I slowly approached the entrance of the mansion.

Using aura sight, I made sure I wasn't being followed, I opened the door and entered the mansion. With only a flashlight, I cautiously looking around. Stepping into the foyer and looking around with the flashlight, I began seeing old furniture, busted windows, cobwebs in corners, and dust on the floor, the place had an eerie feeling to it.

Checking the light switch in the foyer, I found out that there was no power.

'No electricity,' I thought.

Making my way to the back of the mansion, I spotted a statue sitting next to the entrance of the kitchen. Shining my flashlight onto the statue sent chills up my spine; it felt as though I was being watched by whatever was in the mansion.

Taking my gaze off of the statue, I entered the dining room. Looking around, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, until, that is, I shined my flashlight on an apparition of a butler that was sitting at the table. Not hearing any noise, I watched him get up, turn and headed for the kitchen. Turning in the same direction as the butler, I cautiously went to the kitchen while listening for any footsteps from behind.

As I neared the kitchen, I had a strange feeling that I was being followed. Stopping and turning around, I checked to see if anyone was following me. Not seeing anything, I turned and faced the kitchen, then proceeded to check it out.

Looking around the kitchen, I noticed that the window was busted, the sink was rusted and falling apart, the refrigerator had one of its doors hanging from one of its hinges, the floor had cracked tiles, and the wallpaper peeling in most areas of the room. Not seeing the butler, I turned to leave only to see a shadow leave through the dining room door.

'Odd,' I thought starting to head back to the dining room. 'I never heard any footsteps come in or out of the room.'

I tried my best to hurry back to the foyer without making any noise while trying to listen for any footsteps in the house.

Entering the foyer, I looked around for the shadow only to find it heading up the stairs. Turning towards the stairs, I followed the shadow.

'Who else is in this house?' I thought.

Getting to the top of the stairs, the shadow was no where to be seen. Looking down the long hallway, all I saw was rooms.

'It could be in anyone of them,' I thought. 'I might as well get started.'

Entering foyer of the second level, I followed it the a door farthest from the stairs.

Walking towards the first room, I shined my flashlight inside of it to find the source of the shadow. Looking around, I found nothing out of the ordinary. Just a basic room with the paint peeling and dust on top of the furniture and on some boxes. Leaving the room, I walked back out to the hallway and started towards the second room. Doing the same as last time, I found nothing out of the ordinary, just a television, a few books, a painting, and a trash can. Exiting the room, I walked towards the third room, this time a room that had two beds, two bookshelves, one at each end of the room, and a trash can, but still nothing out of the ordinary. Going to the fourth room, all I found was a bed, a trash can, a bookshelf, and a painting. Exiting the room, I went to the last room. I stood at the entrance of the room.

I took a deep breathe.

'Here goes nothing,' I thought.

I entered the room.

Nothing.

The room was empty. The only thing in it was a painting.

Walking over to it, I saw it was a painting of a butler and a little girl.

'I wonder it the two people here lived here at one point in time,' I thought.

Taking the painting out of the frame, I folded it up and put it into my pocket and turned around. Shining my light back on the room, I noticed a little girl standing in the middle of the room.

'She wasn't there when I came in,' I thought.

Taking the photo out of my pocket, I looked down at it, then back at the girl.

"Are you the girl in this painting?" I asked calmly.

She nodded.

"You lived here?" I asked.

She nodded again.

"The butler, did he took care of you when you were alive?" I asked.

She nodded again.

"Did you create the shadow down in the dining room?" I asked.

She shook her head.

Putting the painting back in my pocket I thought, 'if it wasn't her, then who?'

I looked up to see her floating away.

"Hey wait," I called out.

By the time I got out to the hallway, she was gone. Looking at the empty hallway, I thought it was best to check out the last bit of the house.

Walking back towards the doorway that leads to the foyer. Looking at the foyer, something caught my eye. Looking over, I saw the shadow enter the second bedroom.

Cautiously walking over to the room, I looked in. This time the television was on.

'That was not on when I checked earlier,' I thought.

Entering the room, I walked over towards the television.

'How can this be?' I thought. 'There isn't any electricity in this place.'

Looking for the cord for the television, I found that it wasn't plugged in.

'Something has to be giving it power,' I thought.

Standing in front of the T.V. again, the screen went black and something came out of the screen.

I slowly backed up as it fully emerged from the screen.

Seeing this plasma like form come out in front of me somewhat surprised me but also intrigued me.

"Rotom," it said.

"So, you're Rotom," I said.

"Rotom," it said in a more cheery tone as it began to circle me in excitement.

"Someone seems happy tonight," I said smiling.

Watching Rotom float around the room, I took some mental notes about the appearance of Rotom, the shape, and some rough measurement of size and mass. The shape of Rotom seemed different from any other Pokemon that I have seen throughout my journey. It had the shape of a circle in the middle of its body with a much smaller circle underneath it and a spike above it, then it was covered in what looked like to be electricity with two zigzag bolts as arms.

Watching Rotom float around the room once more, I had thoughts of catching it but I decided not to catch it.

After what felt like hours I told Rotom that I would come to visit sometime soon.

I got up and turned to leave. As soon as I got to the door, Rotom stopped me.

"You don't want me to leave, huh?" I said.

"Rotom," it said in a sad tone.

I took a minute to think weather or not I should capture Rotom.

"I have an idea," I said. "Would you like to come with me on my journey?"

"Rotom," it said in a much happier tone.

I pulled out a Poke ball and threw it up in the air. Rotom went up towards it and hit it causing it to open and send a red beam out. Watching the red beam come out of the ball, it went towards Rotom which caused Rotom to turn red and be sucked back into the capsule. Waiting for a few seconds for the ball to stop shaking, I couldn't help but wonder why Rotom would chose me out of all people that would have visited this place.

Picking up the Poke ball, I looked at it for a minute thinking about how Rotom decided to choose me over everyone else.

Tossing the ball in the air, I called out, "Come on out Rotom."

Seeing the capsule open up and the red beam shooting out in the air to form Rotom.

"Rotom," it called out in a more happier tone.

As Rotom circled me, I told it, "You're really gonna like the adventures in store."

"Rotom," it said joyfully.

"Let's get going," I said picking up the Poke ball.

Returning Rotom back into the capsule, I left the mansion and returned back to Eterna Forest.

By this time it was the early morning hours. I decided to head towards Eterna City to find a house to stay in for the remainder of the night.

Exiting Eterna Forest, I came out onto Route 205, then headed east towards Eterna City.

Luckily enough, I knew which house would be vacant and headed towards it.

With being a researcher, I gained quite a few privileges to where I could stay in any of the open house available in each town.

Finding and entering the house, I quickly changed and headed off to bed.


	11. Chapter 11

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	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Having found a place to stay the night before, I gathered up any supplies that we would need when we traveled north of the Elite Four.

Not really sure what to expect, I put together a team that would help me get through Route 223.

Heading north of the city, I came upon a beach that would lead me and my team towards the Elite Four.

"Come on out, Lapras!" I said throwing a Poke Ball into the air.

"Lapras," it said shortly after coming out the capsule.

As she turned around, I returned Lily to her Poke Ball and then hopped onto Lapras' back.

I nudged her a bit to get her going forward. It wasn't long after that that we were off towards the Elite Four.

Looking back, I watched as the city slowly vanished on the horizon. Looking forward again, I could tell we had a long journey ahead of us.

For the time that passed, all I saw was open ocean and the vast amounts of Pokemon that were around as we slowly made our way through Route 223.

I thought it was wise to take all my notes when we got to Victory Road.

After what felt like hours, the Elite Four started to come into view. As we neared the Elite Four, there was one last obstacle that was in our path, going through Victory Road.

Lapras neared the shore and turned so I could hop off.

Turning towards her, I said, "Thanks Lapras."

"Lapras," she said in response.

I returned her to her Poke Ball and then turned around to face the next challenge.

I pulled out my notepad and jotted down all the notes that I took as we went through Route 223 and how life of other Pokemon existed in the open ocean.

Seeing that Victory Road would take a long time to get through, I began to strategize as what to do as I entered the last leg of the trip to Route 224.

Entering Victory Road, I saw how it was laid out and how it was a maze of bridges and pathways. Thoroughly looking around the place, I jotted down some notes and then put my notepad back into my backpack. Standing up, I looked around Victory Road and could tell that the way I wanted to go would be long and difficult to go through.

Making my way through the giant cavern, I eventually found my way out on to Route 224.

Looking around the area, I could tell that very few people have been here as well as the area had quite the view of not only the Elite Four, but a good view of the open ocean that was off in the distance.

As I made my way through the route, I looked around route at the scenery as it was undisturbed by the inhabitants of people.

It wasn't long before I went from walking on grass to walking on sand.

Stopping at the beach, I looked out at the ocean to see the waves crashing on to the sand. I couldn't help but take the time to take a break and look at the surrounding area.

'It feels nice not have to worry about much,' I thought to myself as I sat down in the sand.

Feeling the ocean breeze, I felt at peace once more.

'It feels good to get away from civilization and actually look at what we don't have,' I thought as I looked around the beach.

Getting up and bruising the sand off, I turned back towards the direction I was heading. I headed East for a little bit longer before I turned North to continue on my way.

The scenery on the route was pretty much the same old scenery, a hilly land.

Heading north for some ways, I finally made it to a look out that over looked the open ocean. From where I stand, I could see a distance land northwest of me. I jotted down some notes for my research.

Looking around, I found a rock that it looked like somebody took the time to polish it.

It seemed to stick out from the rest of the rocks as well as the rest of the area.

From what I could gather about the area, I looked back at my notes about a legendary Pokemon North of Route 224. I really couldn't figure out how much farther North it was before I would reach the place, but I could tell that it would take some time trying to locate the place in the vast open ocean.

Off the corner of my eye, something caught my attention. Turning to face it, I couldn't make out what it was.

Grabbing one of my Poke balls, I pressed the button on the capsule and slowly neared it not knowing what to expect from what I was about to face.

Nearing the area where I thought I saw the object...

"Tristain"

I couldn't help but wonder what it was that I was looking at...

"Tristain"

Pressing the button on the capsule, I placed the Poke Ball back on my belt and I kneeled down to get a better look at what the object was.

'It can't be,' I thought in astonishment. 'It's...'

"Tristain"

Looking up at Ari, I could tell that she was worried.

"You've been quiet all morning," she said. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I replied.

"Let's gets some lunch," she said.

"Right," I said.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Sitting down for lunch, I looked around as the Pokémon ate their own food.

"How come you were so quite this morning?" Ari asked me.

"I was thinking that's all," I replied.

"About what? Ari asked.

"Nothing really," I replied.

I took another bite of my sandwich.

"Are you always lost in thought?" she asked.

"From time to time," I replied.

That's when I felt a nudge against my hip. Looking down I saw that one of the Pokemon pushed its bowl from where it was placed to me while trying to get the last bits of food from the bottom of the bowl.

Petting its back, it looked up at me in confusion, and then began to wag its tail.

"How long have you had the Houndour?" I asked Ari.

"I don't own one," she replied. "I thought it was yours."

Looking up at her, I asked, "If it isn't yours, and if it isn't mine, then whose is it?"

Almost immediately after asking, the bushes began to rustle.

Both Ari and I got up at the same time.

Agustin came over to where we were.

"Stay behind me," I told him.

I felt his paws grab my pants.

Some of the Pokémon had gotten ready to fight while the rest were ready to protect some of the younger Pokémon.

It wasn't long when a Houndoom and a couple of Houndour's came out.

"Relax," I called out. "It's only after the pup."

The Houndoom looked at the Pokémon that were nearby.

"Let her through," I said to the Pokémon.

Some of the Pokémon created an opening for the pup to go to its mother.

The pup ran to its mother in excitement.

The mother looked down at the pup, and then looked back up at us.

Briefly we made contact.

I saw her nod, and I nodded back.

She and her pups turned and left.

Just before the Houndour left, it looked at us one last time and then vanished into the bushes.

I felt a slight tug from Agustin.

I bent down to him and put an arm around his shoulders.

"That was the Houndoom that killed my parents," he said to me.

"You sure?" I asked him.

"Yeah, I recognize her aura from anywhere," he said.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" I asked him.

"I was scared," he said looking down.

I pulled him a little closer to me.

"Something wrong Tristain?" Ari asked me.

"No, nothing's wrong," I said.

Picking Agustin up, I stood up and looked around.

"We should start cleaning the place up," I said.

With a few of the Pokémon helping us clean up the area, we got it packed in no time.

Looking over the area once more, we returned all of our Pokémon to their Poke balls and went on our way.

Lily and Ari were up a little ways talking to each other, while Agustin and I stayed behind.

I couldn't help but smile that Lily was getting some time with her. She didn't get all that much time with girls. Agustin on the other hand seemed to not mind that Lily and Ari were hanging out a lot. He seemed to enjoy the comfort I gave him.

I felt his arms wrap around my neck.

"You ok, Agustin?" I asked him.

"Just a little tired," he said.

"All right," I said rubbing his back. "Get some sleep.

I felt him snuggle up into me.

"Thanks," he said tiredly.

"Anytime, Agustin, anytime," I said.

I knew he would fall asleep sometime after lunch, especially with him being so young.

I could hear that Ari was explaining how there were so many different things that people do in cities.

Eventually I tuned them out and listened to the noises that were coming from the surround forests.

I don't know how long it was before I realized we were coming close to our destination. By the time I tuned in their conversation, they were talking about something else, Agustin was already awake, and it seemed like it was the middle of the afternoon.

"You can put me down now," Agustin said.

I had stopped and knelt down to let Agustin down.

Once he was on his feet, I stood up and started walking again.

Lily and Ari weren't that much farther up ahead than us and had caught up to them in no time.

We had entered Hearthome City from Route 208.

"Tristain?" I heard Lily ask.

Looking over at her, I could tell she was nervous.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"I was wondering if I could go with Ari to explore the town," she said.

"That's fine," I said. "Just make sure you and Ari are back here by sunset."

"Thanks," she said.

"Anytime," I said.

Watching them leave, Agustin and I ended up wandering around for some time looking at the scenery.

Eventually, we came across a shop that sold accessories for Pokémon.

Looking down at Agustin, I wasn't quite sure if he was interested in going inside or not.

"You want to go check it out?" I asked him.

"What's in their?" he asked.

"Just some stuff for Pokémon," I said.

"Just for a minute," he said.

We had gone inside to take a look at what they had to offer.

Once inside, I looked around at the variety of items that the shop offered.

"If there is anything you like, tell me. Ok?" I said to him.

"Ok," I heard him reply.

Looking around the shop, I picked out a few items that Lily and Agustin might like.

Picking up one of the three arm bands, I noticed a strange symbol on it.

"Find everything?"

I looked up to see one of the clerks standing there.

"Yeah," I replied. "I just have a question about this arm band."

She looked at the arm band.

"I want to know what this symbol represents," I said to her.

"That symbol doesn't represent anything," she said. "All it is is a regular arm band."

"Thanks for the help," I said.

"If you have any more questions, you can ask any of the staff here," she said.

"Thanks," I said.

With that she turned and left.

I looked back down at the arm band once more.

'Odd, I keep feeling like I've seen this symbol somewhere, but where?' I thought to myself.

"Tristain?"

Looking down, I saw Agustin standing by me.

"What is it?" I asked him.

"Can I get this?" he asked me.

I knelt down to have a closer look.

Upon further examination, it had another symbol. Other than that it was just an ordinary collar.

"Sure," I said smiling to him.

I gave it back to him and stood up. Gathering up the three arm bands, we went to the checkout lane and purchased the items and left.

Once outside, I helped Agustin put on the collar and stood up.

As we walked around the town a bit more, Lily and Ari caught up to us and planned to find a house to stay in for the night.

"I know a house we could stay in for the night," I said as we walked towards the other side of town.

"Where at?" Ari asked.

"Outside of the town," I replied. "What did the two of you get any ways, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Just some girl things," Ari replied. "What about the two of you?"

"A collar that Agustin picked out, and a few arm bands," I said.

"What are the arm bands for?" Lily asked.

"Nothing in particular," I said.

"What about you? Didn't you get anything?" Ari asked.

"No," I replied. "There wasn't anything I liked."

It wasn't long after that when we got to the house.

"How do you know about these houses?" Ari asked.

"I have a thing for finding houses like these," I replied.

"It's a bit small don't you think?" Lily said.

"It is yes, but it'll have to do," I said opening the door.

Once inside, we got settled in and had a chance to sit down for some time.

The house itself was your typical one story, two bedroom house. The walls were a mix of colors ranging from forest green to brown to regular green. It seemed to resemble the outside world as if you were outside camping out in the forest under the stars. The floor was carpeted for out comfort and the ceiling was that of a starry night with the colors growing brighter as you went farther into the house.

"Where do we sleep?" Ari asked.

"In the room right behind you," I said pointing to the door behind her.

"What about you and Agustin?" Lily asked.

"In the room next to you," I replied.

"What about dinner?" Agustin asked putting a paw on my leg.

"We'll get it started soon," I said.

Ari grabbed her backpack and alongside Lily, went into the room and settled in before inner.

I did the same with Agustin.

Once we were all settled in, Ari and Lily got dinner going as Agustin and I got a fire going in the fire place.

By the time we got the fire going, Ari and Lily were dishing out dinner.

Over dinner, Ari explained how shopping worked and how sales worked when getting certain clothing.

Agustin and I, on the other hand, were silent throughout the conversation.

By the time we finished dinner, Agustin and I cleaned up the table as Ari and Lily went back to their room. I did the dishes as Agustin brought me the last of the dishes from the table. Once it was all placed in the dishwasher, I got it started and headed to our room.

Once back in the room, I gathered up some bathroom supplies and got the bath tub running.

"How come you are running the bathtub and not the shower?" Agustin asked.

"It's not for me," I said. "It's for you."

"Why me?" Agustin asked.

"You haven't had a bath in a while," I replied.

"Do I have to?" Agustin complained.

"Yes you do," I replied.

"But I don't wanna," he continued to complain.

"I know, but you have to," I said.

"Fine," he groaned.

I helped into the bathtub and poured some water over him and then grabbed the shampoo bottle.

"How come you don't take baths?" He asked as I started putting shampoo on his body.

"I take showers instead of baths," I replied. "We've gone over this many times."

"I know," he said. "I still don't understand it."

"It'll take some time before you do understand it," I told him as I put some more shampoo on my hands.

I then started scrubbing his arms and legs.

"Are we almost done?" he asked.

"Almost," I replied as I scooped up some water into the cup.

I poured it over him and scooped up some more water to finish off any shampoo that I had missed. I did this a couple of time before unplugging the drain.

As the water was draining, I picked him up out of the bath tub and wrapped a towel around him. I dried him off and got him ready for bed.

By the time he was comfortable in the bed, I went back into the bathroom to shower off.

What felt like hours in the showers, I turned off the water and let the water drip off of my body for a moment before grabbing a towel.

I cracked open the only window in the bathroom. It was then that I started to hear distant thunder. I changed quickly and headed towards the room where Lily and Ari were. Luckily they were still up. I had informed them that there was a thunderstorm coming and then headed back to my room to find Agustin had already fallen asleep. I had crawled into bed next to him and fell asleep shortly after.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

I don't know how long it was after I fell asleep, but I had woken up to Agustin shaking me.

"Agustin, what is it?" I asked still tired.

"Rio," I heard back.

Rolling over, I saw that it wasn't Agustin, but another Riolu shaking me awake instead.

Sitting up, I turned on the side table lamp and looked down at the Riolu.

"Lu," I heard it say as it hugged me.

Placing my hand on its back, I looked up and around the room. The only thing that I could find out of the ordinary was the room door was open and the living room light was on. Picking up the Riolu, we went out to the living room.

"You're up," Ari said.

"Where's Agustin?" I asked still tired.

"Isn't that him?" Ari asked.

"No. The aura is different," I replied.

Hearing the toilet flush behind me, I turned around to see the bathroom door open and Agustin coming out.

"What's going on out here, if you don't mind me asking?" I asked everyone.

"I had woken up to someone knocking at the door," Ari said.

"Who was at the door?" I asked.

"One of the professors assistants," Lily replied.

Going over to the couch, I could tell that it was my mentor from back when I started working at the professor's lab.

"That would explain the Riolu then," I said. "The question is, why would another assistant come all the way out here?"

"What's going on?" Agustin asked still tired.

"It's nothing Agustin, just us talking," I said.

I felt him wrap his arm around my leg as he stumbled. I chuckled as he tried to balance. After a couple of attempts to stand up, he finally gave up and just used me to keep himself balanced.

I knelt down and helped him balance. Once he was balanced, I set down the other Riolu to make sure Agustin was all right.

"Thanks," Agustin said.

"Sure thing," I replied.

"Who's the girl?" Agustin asked.

"The assistant or the Riolu?" I asked.

"The Riolu," he replied.

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"By the smell," he replied.

I felt her snuggle up to me.

"She's nervous isn't she?" I asked.

"A little yeah," he replied sheepishly.

I could tell that he was having some feelings towards the female Riolu.

"Are you feeling ok Agustin?" I asked him.

"Wha~ of course I'm feeling well. What makes you think I'm not?" he said bitterly.

"It's just the way you were looking at her," I replied.

"That's not true," he replied angrily.

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."

"Why are you defending yourself then?" I asked him.

"I don't know," he said looking down.

"You know you don't have to hide your feeling from me, right?" I said putting a hand on his shoulder.

"I know," he said. "It's just…I don't know what to do at times."

"It's alright if you don't know what to do, you can always talk to me about it. That's what friends are for right?" I said to him.

"Yeah," he replied.

"Come here," I said picking him up.

He wrapped his arms around my neck and pressed his head up against my shoulder.

Looking over at the other Riolu, I gave her a pat on the head to calm her down a bit. She did seem to enjoy the comfort.

"Do you know who the assistant is?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," I said looking over at her. "She's my old mentor."

"Your old mentor?" Lily said.

"She was the one who trained me when I first started working at the lab fifteen years ago," I said.

"How long after you first started did you meet Lily?" Ari asked.

"About three years later," I replied.

"But why was it well after you started that you met her?" Ari asked.

"It was my first assignment to gather up some research for the professor," I said. "I met her mother at the day care center and ended up taking care of her child after she passed away."

"What is your assignment this time?" Ari asked.

"It's still the same," I replied "I'm finishing up my research. Once the storm passes we can head back to Sandgem Town."

"How long do you think this storm will last?" Lily asked.

"It might be gone sometime tomorrow," I said. "For now we should get some sleep."

With that, we went back to our rooms.

The female Riolu crawled up onto the bed and made herself comfortable.

I set Agustin down on the bed and then sat next to him.

"Why is it hard for you to tell me what's wrong?" I asked Agustin.

"Whenever I do try to tell you, I become nervous and I can't figure out how to put it into words," he said.

"It's alright if you become nervous when you try to tell me," I said.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said. "You can always try to tell me even if you are nervous. It's the effort that counts in this case."

"Why is it the effort that counts?" he asked.

"It counts because of what you try to do and not what you want to do," I said. "It'll take time for you to become comfortable at tell me what's wrong."

"Thanks," he said.

"Sure thing," I said wrapping my arm around his shoulders.

He then wrapped his arms around by body and put his head on the side of my stomach.

"You wanna fall asleep in my arms again?" I asked him.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

I picked him up and placed my back against the backboard of the bed. He then wrapped his arms around my body and placed his head on my chest.

"I'll be right here when you wake up, ok?" I said to him.

It wasn't long after the when the other Riolu woke up and looked around. I watched her as she looked tiredly over at us for a moment and placed a hand out to let her know that she could come rest over by us. She slowly made her way over and snuggled up next to me.

"Go back to sleep, young one," I said to her quietly as I rubbed her back.

Once they were asleep, I turned off the side table light, slowly began to drift off to sleep as the rain continued to hit the roof of the house.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

"Let me get this straight, you came all this way to deliver an envelope?" I asked her still trying to understand the situation.

The faint remnants of rain could be heard on the roof of the house as the storm seemed to settle down.

"That just about sums it up," she replied.

"Why not send me a message to the Poke Centers? I could have called once I got the message," I asked her.

"The issue with that is that it is confidential information. It would have been far too risky to send it via fax," she said.

"If it was that confidential, I would have put it on a secure line, but with what I read, none of it was confidential and would have been safe to send via fax," I said.

"So what if it wasn't confidential, it should only be read by researchers," she said.

"And that was the reason you were removed from the senior staff. It was your stubbornness that caused your down fall," I replied. "From the time I started working at the lab, I knew something was off, I told nobody about it. I wanted to make sure my suspicions were correct, and they were."

"And whose the new member for the senior staff now?" she asked bitterly.

"You're looking at him," I replied.

"Why should you get it and not me?" she asked angrily.

"I devoted fifteen years of my life to this work, and look where it got me," I said. "I traveled all around the region studying Pokémon, catching them for further research, making friends. That's what a researcher does. Not once did I hear you talk about your own adventures, not once did you mention any of your research or what you even studied."

"What's your point?" she asked bitterly.

"My point is, if you truly are a researcher, why don't you have any documentation of your own research?" I asked her.

"Why would I keep my research with the rest of the scientists?" she asked.

"To help understand the nature of Pokémon. Without us researchers, we would know nothing of Pokémon and how they interact with others in the wild," I said.

"Where's your proof of the interactions of Pokémon?" she asked bitterly.

"Right here," I said pulling out three binders of notes from my backpack. "This is just the last year of research that I've done."

"I'm sure most of it is false," she said.

"How do you know it's false without looking at it?" I asked her.

"I just do," she replied.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Agustin standing by the end of the counter.

"Agustin, if you will," I said.

He conjured up an aura sphere and threw it at my mentor, Anna. At the same time I put up a barrier just before the impact to contain the blast in a small area.

"If you don't want another blast like that, then I suggest you shut your damn mouth about my research or I'll have Agustin here give you another Aura Sphere," I said after the smoke had settled.

She was sitting on the ground with her hands over her stomach and her back against the cupboards.

"What makes you think I'll get my mouth shut?" she asked angrily still in a lot of pain.

"You wanna be scorched to death by Lily instead?" I asked her.

I knew she was ready to conjure up a Flamethrower.

"No," she muttered down at her lap.

"Good," I replied as I put the binders back into my backpack. "Now if you'll excuse us, we'll be taking our leave."

With Lily and Agustin following, we left.

Ari had already gone ahead since she needed to get one last item from the store and would meet us at the entrance of town.

"Where's your mentor?" Ari asked.

"She stayed behind," I said walking past her.

"You alright, Tristain?" she asked.

"I'm fine," I replied without looking over at her.

"You don't seem fine," she said.

"Just drop it Ari," I said. "It doesn't concern you."

With that said, she fell silent.

By the time we got to the other side of town, Agustin informed us about an unexpected visitor. I stopped and turned around to find the other Riolu had been following us from a distance.

Once it saw that I knew it was there, she looked around frantically, and then made a mad dash to the nearest trash can to hide.

"You don't have to hide from us," I called out.

She nervously poked her head out at us from behind the trash can.

"You don't have to hide from us," I said again.

As I walked over towards her, she hid behind the trash can again. Once there, I looked down at her for a moment before she looked up at me.

Bending down, I got her level to give her a pat on the shoulder.

"You don't have to hide from us," I said to her.

Once Agustin got my side, the Riolu ran to him and hugged him.

"Is she alright?" I asked.

"She scared," he replied.

She began to whisper something in his ear.

"What did she say?" I asked him.

"She says she didn't like the other researcher…she says that would rather be with us," he said as she continued to whisper in his ear. "Yet she can't bring herself to trust you completely."

"How come?" I asked.

"She says too scared to trust humans after what she went through," he said.

"I see," I said to myself.

Looking at her, I could tell that she trusted Agustin more than she could trust me or Ari.

"You wouldn't mind staying with her until we got back to Twin Leaf Town, would you?" I asked him.

"N~no, n~not at a~all," he said nervously.

"Come on," I said. "We have a long journey ahead of us."

Standing up I turned and headed west towards Route 208 where the others were still waiting.

"How long is the journey?" Ari asked.

"If we don't get held up in Jubilife City, we should be in Sandgem Town by tonight," I replied.

"Is this why we got up early?" Lily asked.

"It is, yes," I replied. "I didn't want to spend the night in Jubilife City, especially at this time of year."

"What goes on at this time of year?" Ari asked.

"It's the beginning of the annually Jubilife City festival," I replied.

"Do you ever go to the festival?" Ari asked.

"It depends if I'm in the mood on going or not," I replied.

Continuing through Route 208, Hearthome City grew farther behind us and just over the horizon, the entrance to Mount Coronet came into view. Slowly but surely, we made our way towards the entrance of Mt. Coronet.

"Agustin and Riolu, I need the two of you to stay close, alright?" I said to them.

"Ok," I heard Agustin.

"Lu," I heard the Riolu say shyly.

"It's alright, you can trust him," I heard Agustin say to the Riolu.

"It won't take us long to get to the other side," I said as we entered the cave.

Once we were in the cave, I looked around at the stone that was around. Examining what I could see, I could tell that just regular old rock and not much too it. Stopping briefly, I pulled out an instrument and started analyzing the air and found some odd fluctuations. Taking note on what I found, we continued on and got to the other side of Mt. Coronet. Before leaving, I felt the cave entrance and felt the smoothness of the rock.

'Who would take the time to smooth out the rock around the entrance?' I thought to myself as I left the cave. 'I would have to come back later to do more research.'

Exiting out into Route 207, the ground went from being rock to dirt and the surrounding area were mountain ranges. From what it looked like, the area hadn't been traveled much but it somehow matched the layout of the mountain range.

We continued to travel west through the route until we came to a split in the route where it branched off to Route 206 and Oreburgh City.

"Where do we go now?" Ari asked.

"We head south," I replied.

"South?" Ari asked. "Why south?"

"That's where Oreburgh City is," I replied.

"What's in Oreburgh City?" Ari asked.

"It's a mining city," I replied.

"A mining city?!" Ari said in surprised.

"Yeah," I replied. "I'm surprised I haven't taken you through that city."

"Can't we go around it?" she asked.

"It'd take too long," I replied. "Plus I hear they have a museum. We can stop there for a bit to eat lunch and look at the fossils they have."

"What about getting back to Sandgem Town?" she asked.

"We're ahead of schedule," I replied.

"How so?" she asked.

"I would have been in that cave all day studying that area as well as the Pokémon that live there," I replied.

"Can we make it short? I can't stand the smell," she asked as we entered Oreburgh City.

"That's fine," I replied.

Making our way to the museum, we made a quick lunch then went inside to explore the museum. Pulling out my notepad, I began to jot down some notes about the fossils that were on display. I jotted down the dimensions of each fossil as well as drawing a picture and labeling each of the different body parts.

It didn't take long for me to get the notes that I needed and left the museum. We then headed west towards Route 203.

"Thanks for not taking too long with the notes," Ari said.

"Sure thing," I replied. "I can always come back to finish my research. I wanted to get a head start on that portion of research for Professor Rowan."

With Oreburgh City fading from view, we began the trek towards Jubilife City. Ari and Lily ended up having another long conversation about what the life style of Jubilife City as well as the festival that would begin. Agustin and the female Riolu weren't that far behind me, I made sure to keep them close in case if anything were to happen.

It wasn't long before we Jubilife City came into view and Oreburgh was nothing more than a distant city on the horizon.

Looking around the city, we could see the decorations were already up and the people were putting up the final touches for the festival that would begin in a few hours. I couldn't help but admire the decorations as well as all the shops that were placed around the city. From the looks of it, it seemed that the parade would go from the entrance of Route 218 to Route 203 and the food stands and gift shops would go from Route 204 to Route 202.

We took our time to explore the city and looked at some of the different gift shops that had a variety of different gifts as well as a variety of foods from all over the Sinnoh region.

"Ari," I said.

"Yeah?" she said looking over towards me.

"We can come back when I drop off the notes for Professor Rowan," I said.

"Really?" she said excitedly.

"Of course," I replied.

"Thank you so much," she said hugging me.

"It's the least I could do," I replied hugging her back.

We finished up with what we were doing and headed south towards Route 202.

Upon entering the route, I looked up to see that it was already early evening and that the sky would be changing colors soon. Even with the short trip to Sandgem Town, we made our way to the laboratory where I dropped off the notes and was quickly debriefed on the adventure. I even dropped off the other Riolu that had come along.

"Where's Anna?" he had asked.

"She had something to do and wanted us to bring the Riolu back," I replied.

"That's not like her," he said.

"I know," I said. "I find it odd myself."

"Anyways, I hear the festival is starting soon. You should go," he said after hearing the news.

"Will you be joining us?" I asked him.

"No, not tonight," he replied picking up the top binder. "I want to look over the notes that you gathered."

"Right," I said.

With that, we took our leave and headed back towards Jubilife City where we would enjoy the festival. It wasn't often that we got to do something like this and would be a good way to be able to enjoy each other's company for the night. With the festival lasting a couple of days, it would help us relieve the stress from the adventure and be able to be ourselves for the next few days.

As night fell, the festival began to pick up and soon began to become crowded with people. I had picked up Agustin so he could see the different gifts at the gift shops. Lily and Ari had gone off again to look at some of the gifts they liked.

Eventually the parade began and we met up at the fountain to watch it.

With Agustin being small, I put him on my shoulders so he could see the parade much easier and be able to enjoy the experience.

There were a variety of different floats as well as elegant costumes that went with each float, dancers, bands, and different Pokémon from across the region.

Eventually the parade ended. Agustin had already fallen asleep and we waited for the crowd the thin out before heading towards Sandgem Town.

Ari still seemed excited from the festival as we walked towards the town. I couldn't help but smile.

"That was your first time going, wasn't it?" I asked her.

"It was so much fun!" she said. "Why didn't you take me in the last few years?"

"You were never around when the festival began," I said. "We would depart ways before heading home, remember?"

"I know, but you could have told me about them," she said.

"I know," I said. "I thought it would be a good idea to surprise you."

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

At this point we had left Sandgem Town and entered Route 201. I told her that she could stay at my place for the night and that we could go back to Jubilife City the next day.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Mind if I ask why you called me in so early?" I asked yawning.

"I wanted to ask you about the document she wanted to hand deliver," he replied.

"So you knew that it wasn't confidential?" I asked him.

"That is correct," he replied. "She didn't want to make any contact to the Poke Centers in fear that someone would tap into the line."

"She knows I can put it onto a secure line long enough for the document to be faxed," I said.

"Indeed so," he said. "It seems she only wanted to be part of the senior staff in hopes to remove me from my position and take control of the lab and run it her way."

"My only question is why would she want to be the head researcher?" I asked. "There's almost no point for her being the head researcher. She would be cooped up in here most of the time anyway."

"She would indeed," he replied. "Even with her being cooped up in here, she would be forced to review the work of the other scientist. She doesn't have the mind to accept the opinion of other researchers."

"And we both know that she doesn't like reviewing the work of the other scientists," I said.

"That may be, it does beg the question why would she want to hide all of her documents from the rest of the researchers?" he asked.

"I think I know who to ask," I replied.

"Who?" he asked.

"Where's the Riolu that came back with us?" I asked. "I have a couple of questions to ask her."

Not too long after, I had come back with a sleepy Riolu. Professor Rowan had already gotten the other Riolu and was waiting at the lab.

"Why do you need my help again?" he asked tiredly.

"I need a couple of answers from the Riolu that we brought back," I replied. "She seems to trust you more than me."

Watching the female Riolu, she had gone over to Austin and hide behind him for protection.

"See if she can recall anything about her owners' documents for Professor Rowan," I said to him.

I watched as Agustin turned towards her and they started talking. The Riolu did seem hesitant about the question at first, but slowly explained to Agustin about the documents.

"Anything?" I asked.

"She says there in some sort of big shiny box with many nobs," he replied.

"By the sound of it, it sounds like she has them in a filing cabinet," I said. "See if she can take us to her house."

He asked her and she nodded in agreement.

The Riolu turned towards the door and we followed. I opened the door for them and walked out into the morning air. The town itself was quiet with not many people out and about, yet it still seemed to have a tendency to give you that feeling someone was watching from one of the houses nearby.

It wasn't long when we arrived at her house. I checked the door to find that it was unlocked.

"If she was so secretive about her work, don't you think she would have left the door locked?" I asked Professor Rowan.

"Seems rather odd she would do this," he replied.

"You think anyone else is after her work?" I asked him.

"Not that I am aware of," he replied.

Facing the partially opened door, I opened it all the way and entered.

"Let's look around the house and see if we can this filing cabinet," I said as I turned on the family room light.

With the house being small, I had taken the upstairs while Professor Rowan, Agustin, and Riolu took the downstairs.

Not wanting to take the risk of anyone walking in on us, I looked around the bedroom upstairs and found the cabinet in the corner. Making my way towards it, I started with the bottom drawer and looked through the documents. I turned on the desk lamp nearby to get a better view of what I was looking at.

'Nothing but utility bills,' I thought to myself.

Putting them back, I checked the next drawer only to find medical bills. Opening the third drawer, I found receipts from the Poke Mart. Finally opening the top drawer, I had found what I was looking for. I pulled out the folders and started looking through them, that's when I heard someone on the stairs. I quickly turned off the light, gathered the documents, and quietly closed the drawer and hid in the closet.

I wasn't sure if Professor Rowan and the others had taken shelter either, or if it was Professor Rowan himself coming up to check up on me. Either way, I waited until the person was at the top of the stairs before flaring up my aura. By the sounds of the footsteps, it sounded like Professor Rowan.

Using my aura sight, I could tell that it was Professor Rowan along with Agustin and Riolu.

"He shouldn't be taking this long," I heard him say as the lights came on.

"I've already found what I was looking for," I said walking out from the closet and dissipating my aura.

"Mind if I ask why you are hiding in the closet?" he asked.

"I wasn't sure if you were an intruder," I replied.

"I could see that having your back to the door would make a plausible explanation as why you would think I would be an intruder," he said.

"Anyways, I found the documents. I briefly looked them over before you came up. Hopefully this will give us some answers," I said.

"We should take our leave before anyone notices we are here," he said turning to leave.

Back at the lab, we looked at the documents more closely. Professor Rowan took half the documents and I took the other half. Agustin and Riolu were at another part of the lab being examined by some of the other researchers.

With the two of us looking at the documents and understanding them, we concluded that she had motives to get rid of the senior staff all together so that she could do what she wanted.

"It seems that she wanted me to be on her side when I first started fifteen years ago," I said.

"It seems so," he said. "By chance, did she say where she was going?"

"The thing is, I lied about her having somewhere to go," I said. "She's currently on the outskirts of Jubilife City in an old house that we stayed in the other day."

"Do authorities know she's there?" he asked.

"No," I replied.

"That's not like you to finish a job," he said.

"I thought I would let her suffer for all that she has done," I said.

"With one problem out of the way, we can continue our research as normal," he said standing up. "Oh, and before I forget, why don't you and your friends take the time to go to the festival. You can start work once the festival is over."

"Thanks professor," I said standing up.

I went over to where Agustin and the Riolu were to get them.

"They seem to be in good health," said one of my colleagues. "If you don't mind, I took the time to study the bond between the two and how they treated each other."

"That's fine," I said.

I grabbed Agustin and we left for Twin Leaf Town.

Once in Twin Leaf Town, I found Ari and Lily were playing with some of the children.

I informed them that I had the next two days off and that we could go to the festival, in which they were both excited to go. The children wanted to go as well and wanted to join us.

"Ask your parents first, alright?" I told them.

"Ok," they said in unison.

Watching the children go back to their homes, I could tell that they had never been to the festival before. It wasn't often the people of Twin Leaf Town went to the festival went alone a group of kids wanting to see the festival. It was surprising that they knew about the annual festival and the only other way I could think of them knowing is that they go to Jubilife City for trainers' school.

It wasn't long when they returned and told me that they could go to the festival. I told them that we would go in an hour or so, so that I could get something to eat and be able to talk with my parents.

For the time I was talking to my parents, Ari, Lily, and Agustin were outside playing with the kids. All I told them was the last bit of adventure that we came back from and the festival that was taking place in Jubilife City. I withheld the part about my mentor, I didn't want them to know what happened to her nor do I wish to tell them.

Finishing the story, I grabbed my wallet and left to get everyone to head out to Jubilife City. It wouldn't take us long to travel to Jubilife City, since the kids wanted to get there as soon as possible.

By the time it we got to Jubilife City it was early afternoon and the festival wasn't as packed as it was the night before.

The kids were looking at the different gifts as Lily and Ari were back at the usual stands that they had visited the night before. It seemed like everyone was having fun.

Agustin and I made our way around town as town folks walked around looking at a variety of different gifts or getting something to eat. Eventually we got a small snack and sat down at nearby bench and watched as people walked by.

Nightfall came and the city became crowded with more people as they got off work or out from school.

Watching the people go around town and looking at different gift shops, I noticed that Lily came to me alone.

"Where's Ari?" I asked her.

"I thought she was with you," she replied.

"What were you doing when she left you?" I asked her.

"I was looking at the gifts when she left," she replied. "I wanted to show one of the gifts and wanted to get her take on it. I thought she had gotten distracted by another gift shop and forgot to tell me."

"Agustin and I should be able to locate her easily," I said as I slipped into aura sight.

"Found her," Agustin said. "She's by the edge of town."

We walked to where Ari was and found that she was talking to somebody.

We were out of earshot of their conversation, but they didn't seem to realize that we were there.

"Who do you think he is?" Lily asked.

"Probably a family member, maybe an old friend," I replied. "I think we should give them some time together."

We turned and went back towards the festival.

It had gotten late when the festival had ended. The kids were still excited about going to the festival for the first time. Agustin had fallen asleep again before the parade was over. Lily and I talked about what they were getting at the gift shop.

"Do you think Ari knows we left her?" Lily asked.

"She'll figure it out," I replied. "Once she does, she knows where to find us."

It wasn't long before we reached Twin Leaf Town and had the kids go home for the night. By the time we got home, I put Agustin to bed and Lily and I stayed up for a bit longer.

I asked her if she had seen the man before as well as getting any other information I may have missed from when I asked the first time. All she told me was that she hadn't seen the man before nor has she seen Ari act like this before. The best I could do for her was giving her a hug and make sure she was alright. Once she felt better, we headed off to bed for the night.


End file.
